Anime Car Wars: Badlands Run
by Sitting on the Event Horizon
Summary: A simple courier mission had turned into a battle for survival for a courier driver and his passengers.
1. A Series of Unfortunate Events

Welcome to the world...

where the right of way belongs to those with the biggest guns

where killing is ok, as long as it is not premeditated

where most of the world's food supply is divided into an edible species of algae,

fruits and vegetables grown in hydroponic vats,

and an experimental breed of grain made within a small town in the American Midwest

with the potential to feed the rest of the world,

where chaos is just a step away from your front door and your own survival depends on

your wits and weaponry.

Welcome to Anime Car Wars.

* * *

"**People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict"** - Lemony Snicket/ A Series of Unfortunate Events

Chapter 1 – **A Series of Unfortunate Events**

Sunday – August 9, 2037

In an editorial run by today's edition of _Latter Day Saint's Church News_, the LDS Church had advocated returning some functions of their government to the United States.

"The Federal government in Washington does most things well," the editorial began. "We should each concentrate on those things that we can do efficiently."

Monday – August 10, 2037

Members of the "Deseret First" Committee had expressed their concern over the LDS's stand on the issue.

"Name one thing Washington does well, and I'll tell you why you'd be arrested for it here," a Committee member was quoted as saying.

Tuesday – August 11, 2037

Elder Gennai Whitney, a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church, was invited to speak at the Fourteenth Intergovernmental Conference in San Francisco on Monday, August 17. Gennai would act as liaison for Deseret with the U.S. State department.

Members of the "Deseret First" Committee immediately had denounced the action. "Gennai's been good for the Church, but this time he's dead wrong." one Committee member said.

Wednesday – August 12, 2037

In a prerecorded video message, Elder Gennai Whitney had defended his participation in the conference. "I have no intention of giving Washington anything for free," he began with conviction.

"Like all of you, I have worked hard to gain the right to live as we please, to work as we please and to worship as we please." The famed Elder added, his voice rising in volume with every phrase spoken.

"Our standard of living is higher than most states, and our crime rate is much lower. I don't plan on giving that away," Gennai promised as he had ended his speech.

An anonymous caller in a radio talk show had replied, "The citizens of Deseret won't stand for this. We're not going to let Gennai give up one shred of our autonomy- no matter what it takes." Attempts by the police to trace the call were unsuccessful.

Thursday – August 13, 2037

Ryo Akima, Gennai's executive secretary and security chief, was run down by a speeding car. No credible witnesses were found at the scene of the crime.

Only an anonymous caller to Church headquarters had claimed responsibility for the murder; saying that "This is only the beginning…" As before, the call was unsuccessfully traced.

Friday – August 14, 2037, 10:00 PM

Willie's Truck Stop, just west of Salt Lake City, is the standard where other truck stop restaurant's meals are judged. "Their meals can't possibly be as bad as Willie's" is a catchphrase among the Brotherhood of Truckers.

Despite its well-deserved reputation, the said estalishment's nearness to Salt Lake City's Deseret International Airfield has brought it plenty of business.

Inside the infamous truck stop's packed restaurant, Takuya Kanbarra was chomping down with relish – an algae-based cheap imitation of a hamburger.

He had quickly looked to his left to see his chubby best friend, Junpei Shibayama as the latter was finishing his second bowl of chili and had even flagged down a passing waitress for a third.

"How can ya eat that-that stuff?" Takuya asked, cringing at the thought of his red headed business partner eating two bowls of chili, one after the other and emptying a large glass of water in between. The brunet had filled up the said glass in front of his friend just in case.

"It's very simple, 'Taki old bean. I nearly got my taste buds shot off during my brief stay in New Orleans late last year," Junpei replied as he had taken his third order.

"A funny looking guy tried to kill me for spending the night with his knock out of a girlfriend who I did not even do the nasty with, " He added. "He would have almost shot my left leg too if his girlfriend had not whacked him on the head with a beer bottle."

"Are ya sure you didn't touch her or even kiss her on the lips instead?" The brunet was finishing off his burger and now reaching for his cold mug filled with Budweiser.

"Aw come on, Takuya. Of course, I kissed her and we even made out a bit on the couch but we stopped before it had gone too far. Scout's honor," Junpei replied as he had put his right gloved hand over his heart while raising his left, palm open.

The portly duelist's cheeks were tinted red as he had recounted that particular episode of his wild past.

"Yeah, yeah. I believe you."

"So what's buggin' you since this job's a cakewalk jus' like that delivery for Mr. Karakuchi back in Atlanta, three months ago." Junpei had suddenly asked his armored friend.

"That delivery was easy since he had the equipment prepared for pick up, a few days before we even arrived at the music shop. All we had ta do was deliver it to that nightclub - by 3:00 PM, Saturday afternoon," Takuya replied.

"Oh yeah. Now that you mentioned it, they were just sitting there in the delivery entrance when we arrived."

The brunet duelist's palm had made contact with his face before signaling the waiter for the check. He then stood up and headed for the garage to see if their van – the Security Six was fully charged and road ready.

Junpei had simply shrugged his broad shoulders and waited for the waiter with the printed receipt.

As Takuya headed for the doubled-door exit; he could not help but smile on the picture portraits of famous auto duelists like Ikki Tenryou, Ranma Saotome, and Ryoga Hibiki who just had their first (and last) taste of the food served here. Their facial expressions,which had ranged from drooling anticipation to spewing disgust, were certainly priceless.

The portraits were hanged just above the counter for everyone to see and laugh at.

There were also some digimon plush toys on the wooden shelves placed on the walls on either side of the restaurant but the best part of the place has to be the enormous AION window showing the nearby landing field and three airships that were temporarily parked there.

-oOo-

As the brunet arrived at the charging area of the nearby garage, he had given his van a quick once-over. To his relief, the General Motors Company Savanna Passenger Van LS G1500 was still in tip-top shape.

Its turreted auto cannon, rear mine dropper, and front machine guns have all glinted in the glare of the four overhead fluorescent lamps. All four weapons were already fully loaded with ammunition.

The van's fire proof/laser reflective armor with the dark blue paint job was still in good condition, and its fire-proof steel-belted tires were all brand new.

He had arrived to the lobby in the main terminal building just in time to see his best friend listening to all the chatter about the route they will be taking while they were watching the combat football match between bitter rivals Detroit and Chicago.

Junpei was sitting in the two seat couch, listening to the advice of his seat mates while avidly watching the game.

The lobby itself was quite cozy with a three-piece suite placed in front of a 36" high-definition TV. The large room was well lighted by two fluorescent lamps placed nearly side by side in the middle of the white ceiling, about a foot in between them.

Only a single wooden door separated it from the rest of the building. Two AION windows separated it from the outside world. The couch also lay flush on the longest side of the walls (painted light blue) of the said room.

Both men had been warned by their seat mates about the strange happenings near Winnemucca, biker gangs, Vallejo's annual Gang Day and Gennai's sticking his political nose where it does not belong.

They were also told to bring their fishing gear since the fish were biting in Sacramento's clean waterways and that it was better to travel in the daytime for safety reasons.

A loud explosion nearby had stopped the sounds of revelry within the room. Everyone in the lobby simply crouched to the floor and covered their heads with their hands, fearful that the building they were in have been heavily damaged by plastic explosives and may collapse at any second.

A few seconds later, a second explosion (much louder than the first) was heard. The room's occupants had begun to panic and someone had shouted gibberish in fear of being buried alive before someone else had slapped some sense into him.

"An airship has just crashed in the nearby airfield!" someone else had shouted above the din. Almost immediately, both members of the Last Frontier Courier Service had stood up and dusted themselves off.

-oOo-

As they headed for the motel adjacent to the airfield terminal buildings, both young men had seen the brave firefighters of the Salt Lake City fire department fight the blaze in the passenger cabin with their Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) extinguishers.

The local police officers had helped out by dispersing the gathering crowd who were gawking at the burning airship, thus keeping the latter out of harm's way. Ambulances were also present to ferry the injured few to the nearest hospital.

"It is a good thing that airships today use helium instead of hydrogen. If they did use hydrogen as their lifting gas, it would really burn me up. Get it? Burn…fire," Junpei commented from his and Takuya's vantage point at the building's doorway.

"Very funny, ha ha. Let's just get out of here, JP." Takuya replied as he had pulled the bigger man by the armored arm towards their destination.

"Jeez, lighten up 'Taki. I was just making the situation a little more bearable." Junpei replied as he had tugged his arm from Takuya's grasp and almost pulled the smaller man with it.

"Sorry man, it's just that who ever did this isn't playing around. Deseret First sure can pick its hit men well," Takuya said as he had looked at the soft ground beneath him.

Junpei sighed and patted his friend's back. "I hear ya, Takuya. But we nev'r backed out of a job before and there's no way in hell we are going to start now."

"You're right. Thanks, Junpei."

-oOo-

Soon the duo had reached the motel,which was a short distance from the terminal building they had just came from. At the leftmost door, Junpei had knocked on the door twice then once more for good measure.

The door had slowly opened to reveal a nearly balding elderly man, around five feet two inches in height. His full name is Elder Gennai Whitney, one of the current Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

"Ah, it is nice to see you again, Junpei and Takuya. A little voice told me that something bad would happen once I take that flight." Gennai said as he had closed and locked the door to the room. "Good thing for us, I followed it. It would seem that our decoy had worked better than we expected. Don't you think so?"

"Yes, Elder Gennai." answered Takuya simply. "May I ask a question?"

"Yes, yes. Now what is it?" Gennai replied as he was picking up all of his travel gear, which was kept in two worn but still usable suitcases. The apostle had already worn his light blue improved body armor, complete with helmet.

"Can we go through our agreement again?"

The exasperated LDS apostle sighed as he had gently laid down his suitcases and went to sit in one of the couch chairs. Takuya and Junpei had sat at the double bed.

"Our agreement is that I will pay you 500, 000 dollars to take me to this address (gives the brunet a rumpled faxed piece of paper) before midnight on Sunday. I will also pay for all our meals, medical expenses, ammunition, replacement weapons, and repairs along the way. I hope that this explanation is satisfactory enough for you gentlemen."

The two duelists had memorized the name of the hotel and the address given (New Market St Hotel -180 Market St., San Francisco, California). Neither Junpei nor Takuya had asked why Gennai was in such a hurry since professional etiquette demands that such questions need not be asked.

"Yes, it's enough. Thank you, Elder." said Takuya with a nod.

The three had stealthily headed back to the van, using the large crowd standing behind the yellow _**do not cross** _police tape as a screen from curious eyes. Gennai had followed the two younger men through the parking lot into the charging area with his head bowed.

Takuya had thought he was either praying or hiding his face from curious onlookers or both. Junpei had the first driving shift as he waddled to the driver side door and went inside.

Takuya had opened the sliding door in the right side of the van to let the elder in before closing it and climbing into the gunner seat beside Junpei. The Security Six had pulled up to the side of the highway before joining the light traffic going westward on the Interstate 80.

-oOo-

Interstate 80, Utah - 12:15 PM

About one hundred miles away from Salt Lake City, both driver and gunner had finally let down their guard for a while since it would seem that they have escaped the clutches of Deseret First.

In their glee, both men had sung **Butterfly** made famous by the J-pop singer **Kouji Wada**.

Gennai was sure that he had heard that song from somewhere before but could not remember exactly where and when did he hear it. He decided to forget about it as he let himself drift into a fitful sleep.

The two couriers were still trading jokes and stories (in a quieter tone so as not to disturb the sleeping apostle) when suddenly Junpei suddenly fell forward.

The resulting fall had made the van swerve to the left and the machine guns to fire a short burst of high density rounds. The two tiny dolls of Agunimon and Bettlemon had thrashed wildly from their hung positions under the rear-view mirror.

Takuya had tried to move his unconscious friend from the steering wheel after he unbuckled the large man's seat belts. The sudden swerving and gunfire had also woken up Gennai who was confused at the strange movements of the van and the ongoing drama going on at the front seats.

"What's going on, Takuya?" The apostle had asked the panicking gunner in the front seat of the van. But Takuya had ignored him since he had dived to the driver seat both to move the unconscious Junpei and gain control of the now swerving van.

Drivers of duel cars passing by from the other side of the highway had yelled curses at the drunken nut in the blue van. A few had even flipped them the bird.

After a nearly monumental effort, Takuya was able to move his large friend to the gunner seat and grab the steering wheel. He had stepped hard on the brakes and turned the wheel sharply to the right so that the van had gone off-road into the dusty salt flats.

Afterward, the brunet duelist had turned off the power plant to save whatever electrical charge the van has left. The Apostle had already exited the van and was now waiting at the driver side door, his wrinkled face showing his concern at the now-delirious Junpei.

"Sorry, Elder. Somethin' is wrong with Junpei. He seems t' be suffering a bad case of heartburn," Takuya said as they had moved the fat duelist to the middle seat. Junpei had groaned a bit and clutched his stomach.

"It must be from something he ate before we left Salt Lake. Anyway, just call me Gennai. Elder is too conspicuous for this journey especially since no one is supposed to know that I'm here traveling with you," Gennai replied as he had looked at Junpei from his position outside the van's gunner side door.

"Yes, El-Gennai. Although, I may need a gunner for the rest of this journey. Can ya shoot?"

"I was in the US Marines when they had deployed in Argentina around forty years ago. I don't know much about autodueling and I can barely drive. But I'll do what I can."

"Thank you, Gennai." Takuya replied gratefully. Still, he wished that he had a more experienced gunner by his side in this trip. After all, danger still lurked in every corner, rock face or canyon they would be passing through on their way to Reno and eventually San Francisco.

Takuya had glanced back at his best friend still clutching his sore stomach and groaning as he said. "Don't you dare die on me, JP or I'll kill you fer sure."

Both Takuya and Gennai then buckled up their seat belts. The brunet had also re-started the van's power plant. The eight miles to Wendover seemed to stretch on forever as the duelist had kept the Security Six at a minimum cruising speed of fifty miles per hour to keep JP from moving around too much.

Sweat had flowed in rivulets around the driver's cheeks before ending at his chin and falling to the floorboards in the form of droplets. The elder, on the other hand, was clasping his hands and his wrinkled head was down. He seemed to be praying for a miracle to occur then and there.

-oOo-

After what seemed to be years (but actually only fifteen minutes has passed), the blue van had arrived at the little town of Wendover. The town used to straddle the Utah-Nevada border with the Utah side making its living from the truck stop, restaurant, garage, and other small businesses.

On the other hand, the Nevada side (West Wendover) was built around five full service casino hotels namely – the Red Garter, Wendover Nugget, Rainbow, Peppermill, and Montego Bay. Liquor stores had lined up in some of the streets to cater to tourists who came there to gamble their life savings away.

Things had changed (for the better or for the worst, it depends on who you ask) when the Deseret border has shifted to include West Wendover in its territory. The liquor stores and other casinos were simply legislated out of existence.

As for the hotels, most have already closed down their casinos and now just cater to tourists on their way to California and Las Vegas. The ones that did not comply with the law were themselves closed down and later demolished to make way for more suitable buildings.

Now the united Wendover is an interesting combination of thriving small business, semi-vacant hotels, and vacant/demolished buildings. It is easy to tell where the state line used to be.

-oOo-

After asking for directions from the toll booth attendant, Takuya had guided the Security Six through the deserted streets of Wendover until they reached the town's only hospital.

Stopping at the hospital's emergency entrance, he had honked his horn twice to get the paramedics' (who were taking a break at the time) attention.

The two paramedics had rushed out with a stretcher. The paramedics had loaded Junpei on it before wheeling him deeper into the building. Both Takuya and Gennai had followed him in. The van itself was led to the parking spot closest to the said entrance.

As they headed down the brightly-lit hall, Junpei had called his friend over.

"Get him through, man. Finish this badlands run if not for Gennai or Deseret, than at least for me. Ya got that, partner?" the stricken duelist had told his younger friend as his large hand met Takuya's smaller one in a shaky clasp.

"Of course I do, Junpei. I swear that I'll take this run to the very end, whatever the cost may be." Takuya replied as he had squeezed his best friend's hand in return.

"Thanks, man. " Junpei said gratefully as he had let go. "I'm glad that you still 'ave that fiery spirit within you. I still wish we could see that hot Japanese-Italian chick again. What was her name again, 'Taki?"

"I think it was Izumi Ori-something. I forgot," replied Takuya as he had scratched his head.

"Oh yeah, now that's one firecracker that I wouldn't mind playing with." Junpei said laughing before coughing loudly.

By the time the two members of the Last Frontier Courier Service had finished talking, they were now just outside the operating room's double doors.

The LDS apostle was talking to the young nurse, who had met them in the hallway earlier, about the payment of the hospital bills.

"Real funny, pal. I pray that you will come of this alive and well." Takuya replied after a moment but his facial expression showed relief instead of the usual irritation about the the fat duelist's jokes on his crush.

"Dude, they will probably just use a stomach pump on me. You worry too much."

"Yeah well, it'll be a bit lonely on the highways without ya there man." Takuya said sadly as he had leaned on the now panicking Junpei with his arms outstretched.

"Takuya, don't ya even dare hug me especially in a public place like this. Otherwise, I'll maul you when I get out this hospital. I'm not kiddin', man." Junpei said as he had raised his gloved hands weakly in a futile gesture to stop the nearing brunet.

"Oh come on, JP. It was just a joke. Of course, I never swing that way. You of all people should know that." Takuya replied as he had stood straight.

"Alright, alright. That was real hilarious, Takuya." the fat duelist said, his tone halfway between sarcastic and relieved. "Seriously though, you really need a girlfriend. It'll be worth it, trust me on this." the portly duelist continued before he was pushed to the opened wooden double door leading to the operating room.

Takuya had tried to follow but the nurse, who was talking to Gennai earlier, had grabbed his arm and stopped him in his tracks.

"Excuse me but visitors are not allowed in the operating room. Hospital rules, sir." said a pretty nurse as she was gently pulling Takuya away from the door. She then asked the brunet about their insurance, what had happened and so forth before leaving for the nurses' station.

Takuya had spent twenty minutes pacing the hallway, not even taking his seat in the plastic bench beside Gennai. The LDS apostle was reading a paperback spy novel that he had taken from his luggage.

Finally the doors opened and a blue haired lanky surgeon wearing dark green scrubs had emerged from the operating room, his lips curved in a small smile. His surgical mask was pulled free and was now hanging below his angular chin.

"So what's JP's status, Doc? Will he be alright?" Takuya said in a rush as he had placed his gloved hands on the taller surgeon's shoulders.

"He'll be fine, Mr. Kanbarra. We're now pumping the rouge food out his stomach. Why don't you head out to town and come on by in about an hour?" The bespectacled doctor had assured the worried Takuya.

"Thanks, Doc."

"My name is Dr. Jyou Kido, Mr. Kanbarra. Not Doc." Jyou had corrected him with an amused smile.

"Sorry, Dr. Kido. Thanks for takin' care of my best bud." Takuya had blushed a bit as he had realized his earlier mistake. "Oh yeah, and you can call me Takuya."

"Don't mention it, Takuya. Just come back in about an hour, o.k?"

"Yes, I will and thank you." The duelist said before heading for the hospital's exit with Gennai.

"You look worried, Takuya." Gennai said as they were nearing the exit.

"I am. " Takuya replied sadly. "Junpei and I 'ave been business partners for nearly five years now and friends for even longer."

"Don't worry, Takuya. In my line of work, I have seen a lot of miracles happen. I have faith Junpei will pull through somehow," said Gennai as he had patted the younger man's back.

The brunet's reply was drowned out by the newly activated hospital's public address system.

"Attention: Dr. Jyou Kido. Your wife's on the phone."

Both Takuya and Gennai had laughed at the now panicking Jyou running to the nurse's station as if his life had depended on it.

As they had exited the hospital, both men sighed as they had looked at the twinkling stars above. The journey ahead would never be easy since Deseret First would eventually figure out that Gennai was missing and is sure to put a price on his head.

Secondly, the local gangs were no pushovers either. Then again, it is always darkest before the dawn so there may be some hope for them yet.

-oOo-

About fifty meters away from the hospital, Takuya had spied a small restaurant across the street from them. As with all restaurants of this type, it is never empty even at this ungodly hour.

As they entered, Takuya had quickly scanned the surroundings in case something happens. What they had seen was about half a dozen people of various ages hanging around the restaurant.

Most were sitting in the various tables placed in rows from the door. Two people were talking in the counter, and one guy in a table near the window was trying to befriend the waitress.

The smell of algae and French fries had drifted through the air, helped in part by the restaurant's ceiling fans. Both Gennai and Takuya had sat beside the middle aged man wearing a Hercules Motors cap, a plaid shirt, and a green vest.

The brunet duelist had ordered two French fries and two iced teas for him and the elder.

The brunet was very excited since the French fries here are made from real potatoes, a rarity in this day and age. Gennai was talking to the courier sitting next to Takuya (the one with a plaid shirt).

"Rough road tonight, friends." The man said quietly. "I drove in straight from Reno. Between here and there, I saw three gangs of ghouls and a Saguaro party. I aim ta head on into Salt Lake City – a day or so of boredom will do me some good."

"Ghouls? Saguaro party?" Gennai repeated as he was confused by the strange terms. A rather large drop of sweat had appeared on Takuya's head as he heard the elder's question.

"You guys aren't from around 'ere, aren't you?" the man asked in disbelief. Both duelist and apostle had nodded slightly.

"Ghouls are gangs, usually bikers, who shoot up cars and sell the salvage." The man had paused for a bit to take a swig of Colt 45 beer. "The Saguaros are a cycle gang out of the hills up north of Battle Mountain. They're rude, obnoxious, lecherous, mean sons of bitches – and they give unbelievable parties, if ya like that sort of thing."

"What a waste of youthful energy," said Gennai sadly.

"You got a point, ol' timer. Anyway, I made a mistake of stopping at one of their parties once. I woke up two days later, face down on the pavement." The man said as he had picked up his check, left a dollar tip and starts for the cash register. "I suspect I must 'ave had a real fun time, but I sure don't remember anything. Still, it's been nice talking to you."

After he paid his meal, the man had left the restaurant and headed straight for his green van.

As Takuya was finishing off his French fries, he had caught a bit of the conversation from the two men in the window booth. They were talking about something called the "Desert Ghost." For some unknown reason, cars were running off the road near Reno.

The only survivor said that he had seen something but died before he could tell what that something was.

By then the brunet had finished his meal and motioned to Gennai that they had to leave. The elder had paid for the meal while Takuya left a five dollar tip. They had left the restaurant quickly to look for an American Automotive Dueling Association (AADA) office to check the latest road bulletins.

From there, they headed to Sam's – a combination service station and grocery store. Even if Sam's itself was closed for the night, a terminal screen in the window was scrolling news from the North American News Service (NANS) line – including AADA bulletins.

After five minutes, they had seen the information that Takuya was looking for:

* * *

_AADA Road Report 0100 MST 081537 SLC Reno_

_AADA Advisory for Interstate 80, Salt Lake City to_

_Reno issued 8/15/37 at 0100 Mountain Standard Time_

_Both lanes of I-80 are clear from Salt Lake City to_

_Wendover. West of Wendover cycle gangs and_

_scavengers have been sighted throughout Nevada_

_and far western Deseret. Caution is advised._

_Drivers also report a gang-related disturbance on both sided of I-80_

_just east of Battle Mountain. AADA advices drivers on limited_

_time schedules to avoid this disturbance if at all possible._

_Road conditions poor-to-fair across Nevada, except near Wadsworth_

_where cycle gangs have been busily renewing potholes repaired by_

_road crews during the day._

_Weather forecast courtesy NANS: Clear and cool tonight with lows_

_in the mid-60s. Highs tomorrow expected to be in the low 80s._

_Next scheduled update 0400 Mountain Standard Time_

_AADA SLC 081537 0100 TVE35241 AR953X 05-45-45 G_

* * *

Both men had returned to the hospital where they learned from Jyou that there were traces of poison mixed in with the chili Junpei ate back at Willie's.

Thankfully, the said traces were also pumped out and Junpei is now fully detoxified and out of would still have to rest in the hospital for two days to fully recover. Both Takuya and Gennai headed for the room where Junpei is currently staying and said their goodbyes at the sleeping man.

Afterward, Takuya had escorted Gennai back to the van and left the hospital parking lot. Fifteen minutes later, the Security Six had entered the ramp back to the I-80 leaving Wendover entirely.

* * *

With that, we end the first chapter of Badlands Run. For those who are wondering who did Jyou marry, her name is Jun Kido nee Motomiya and she is the town's local pediatrician. Just a little bit of trivia, everyone.

Also I would like to apologize for the death of Ryo Akiyama in this chapter. It is not that I had him killed because I dislike him but rather his death is needed to highlight the lengths the bad guys will take to achieve their goals.

Also Deseret is the name of the autonomous region created by the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or Mormons. Its territory is mainly in the state of Utah and bit of north-east Nevada.

It would be possible for them to make such a separate nation since the number of Mormons today is about a million or so according to Wikipedia.

The Quorum of the Apostles, where Gennai is a member of, claims a leadership role second only to the First Presidency. The First President is then composed of the President of the Church and his counselors.

This is similar in structure to the Executive Branch of the Government. The Quorum of the Apostles would then be similar to the Senate or Upper House of the Legislative Branch. In short, Gennai is akin to a Senator in the Deseret government. This is also according to Wikipedia.

Lastly, I do not own: Digimon (its characters and its opening theme), Car Wars and its respective copyrighted places and terms, the cities mentioned here, General Motors Company, and the equipment/weapons used in this chapter, and the succeeding chapters. I only borrowed them for the purpose of this fan fiction.

Legend: " " - talking, ' ' - thinking, ( ) - mini Author's Notes, _Italics_ - for road reports (either flashing or printed) and news in hard copies (paper). x - dividers for road signs, **_bold italic_** - needed for the lettering on the police line used to screen a crime scene from curious onlookers, and **bold** - for quotes, song titles/ artists performing them, and words that are emphasized.

On our next chapter, our heroes meet some people down the road who are in need of a little helping hand. To illustrate, here is a little preview:

* * *

As they came over a crest of a hill, a disabled station wagon ( fourth generation Dodge Magnum) was seen at the right side of the road. It looked like a fresh kill, a gang of scavengers were dismantling it for salvage.

Takuya shook his head as he had seen scenes like this before but still didn't get used to it. Gennai had cringed at the sight and shook his head in dismay that people resort to such shenanigans like this just to survive. He had also looked if there were any survivors that hid in the nearby bushes.

* * *

Well, that's it for now. I will be seeing you in the next chapter. So in the meantime, read this and enjoy. Thank you for giving this story even just a moment of your time.


	2. Promises

Hi, everyone. This is the second chapter of Badlands Run. This is the part where Takuya begins to earn his keep since he has to keep himself and his client - Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints Apostle Gennai Whitney alive from the various gangs in the arid regions of Northern Nevada.

They also have to arrive in the address (already mentioned in the previous chapter) in San Francisco by twelve midnight on August 16, 2037. Quite a tall order for a courier of Takuya's caliber, I might add.

That and Takuya will have his gloved hands full helping other people in need along the way. This is the real reason I included the quote seen below. There will be some vehicular fights in this chapter but they will be thankfully short.

I also don't own Folger's coffee, BMW Motoradd Company, Honda Motors Co., ABC Companies, or Thousand Arms.

Legend: " " - talking , ' ' - thoughts, ( ) - mini Author's Notes, **words in bold** - quote, song title and artist who performed it, and words in bold-italic - words written on road signs,

Just read and enjoy, everyone.

* * *

**"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness or abilities I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall never pass this way again."** - Stephen Grellet

**Chapter 2** – **Promises**

Interstate 80, west of Wendover – 2:00 AM, August 15, 2037

Takuya was listening to the radio which is softly playing "**Depend on You**" by **Ayumi Hamasaki **as he had driven the Security Six through Interstate 80 westward**.** The song had brought the duelist back to the time when he was content with playing a great but not well-known game called Thousand Arms in his early teens.

The main character of that game (Meis Triumph) had made a promise to his master and friend, which he had kept no matter what the consequences. Takuya had found it ironic that he himself now has a promise to keep from a good friend; much like Meis did with his mentor -Jyabil Dawnfield who had died in his scrawny arms.

With that depressing thought in mind, he had quickly snapped back to reality.

The duelist had also kept his eyes peeled for trouble, just in case.

Instead of trouble, Takuya had found a few signs on each side of the road. One of them being the official Board of Tourism sign: _**Welcome to Nevada**_. Someone had spray painted on the bottom of the sign: _**Now go home!**_

A few meters away, two more homemade sign were posted on both sides of the road: **_You are now leaving Deseret. Please set your watches forward twenty years_.**

This was actually written on the sign on the left side of the road. On the other side this sign was posted: **_Deseret dueling control ordinance strictly_ **(the word enforced was scratched away messily) _**ignored.** _

Takuya had laughed quietly at the weird sense of humor of the local gangs as he drove on further into the Nevada desert. Beside the duelist, Gennai had alternately dozed off and watched the desert night scenery.

-oOo-

A half hour later as the van was rounding a bend, its passengers had seen a midi-bus that seemed to be stalled on the right side of the road, a quarter mile ahead of them. There appeared to be someone standing behind the bus, but neither Takuya nor Gennai could not make out anything more than that.

The bus (ABC Companies M1000) itself was an older model with eight to ten armor ports, which acted as its windows. The glasses on the ports were tinted for still unknown reasons. It also has a turreted anti-tank gun and two recoilless rifles up front but there seemed to be some signs of other concealed weapon ports on all its sides especially in its rear.

"Let's give these people a hand. It is the Lord's will to help other people in need." Gennai said as soon as he had correctly guessed the state of the stalled vehicle.

"Yes, Gennai." Takuya answered almost in a robotic manner.

The Security Six had slowed down as it approached the stranded bus. The latter vehicle's turret immediately had tracked the former vehicle's movements as the figure in the rear had retreated out the Security Six's firing range.

As the figure hid behind the bus, both occupants of the van had noticed that it was a young woman with shoulder-length purple hair, holding an M-16A2 assault rifle.

The blue van had stopped at a respectable distance away from the bus' front. The turret still tracked the said vehicle's movements until both Takuya and Gennai had stepped out of the Security Six and headed closer to the bus, unarmed.

Both courier and elder were met by another young woman, this time with shoulder-length red hair tied in a pony tail, and she was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle.

"Hi. Name's Ruki Makino and do either of ya know anything about power plants?" she asked as her violet eyes had studied them for hidden weapons and such.

"Um, I-I knew only a little bit since my partner does most of the repairs. By the way, I'm Takuya Kanbarra." The brunet said as he had extended his hand for a hand shake which was ignored by the red head.

"How 'bout you, ol' timer?" the young woman asked as she had faced Gennai.

"Same as him but I can at least hold a fire light. Also my name is Gennai, young lady. Not old timer," answered the apostle with a hint of anger at being called old timer twice in the same night.

"Sorry, Gennai. It's just that this place gives me the creeps," the red haired girl said as she had swept her right hand in a 180 degree arch.

Ruki was referring to the buttes and other small mountains that jut out from the still darkened horizon. Sage brushes of different sizes and heights has littered the area. Groups of single-leaf pinyons has formed little woodlands of their own, rivaling those made by nearby Utah Junipers.

There were even some sightings of black-tailed jackrabbits and pack rats among the assorted bushes near the bus' location. Also some howls from coyotes that hang around in the low-lying buttes could really be hair-raising at best.

Takuya had tried to talk to Ruki but for the most part was ignored by the fuming red-head. About ten minutes later, a side door of the bus had opened and a bushy-haired brunet, with welding goggles hanging off his neck, had come out.

"Hey, Ruki!" he shouted angrily. "How much longer are we gonna be sittin' here?"

"If you had helped Ken with the repairs rather than just sittin' inside the bus twiddling your thumbs, Daisuke then you would know."

"I'm not twiddling my thumbs, 'Miss Ice Queen who loves Takato but would not even tell it to his face'. I was keepin' tabs on the passers-by with the anti-tank gun."

"What did ya say, you goggle-headed freak?" Ruki said as she had leveled her assault weapon on the now-scared Daisuke.

"Uh-oh. Is that the high resolution targeting computer I hear beepin'? ." The goggle-headed brunet had run back to the safety of the bus' interior, closing the door shut with a loud slam. "I think I'd better check it out."

"That'll show him. I knew he would regret givin' everyone such names but nooo, he said everyone thought they were actually funny." came a soprano voice from the rear of the bus.

"Yeah, although a few of his 'nicknames' were a bit amusing just not all of them. How are things on your end, Miyako?"

"Kinda boring but that's how I like it," replied the lavender-haired girl with wide rimmed glasses who Takuya had realized was the one he and Gennai had seen earlier.

Noticing the duelist whose jaw seemed to be hanging from the earlier event, the newcomer's lips had curved to a smug smile.

"So who's he? Your new boyfriend, perhaps?" Miyako quipped as she had studied the brunet duelist from head to toe.

Takuya had blushed heavily at the comment and subsequent examination. Although Ruki is a very attractive girl, she still could not hold a candle to his dream girl who he had met only a year before.

"Very funny and no, he's not my boyfriend. He's Takuya Kanbarra, the driver of that blue van that stopped over there. (pointing to the parked Security Six). His old friend Gennai is helping Ken right now…" Ruki replied huffily at Miyako who barely contained her laughter at the red head's initial shocked expression. "Stop laughing, Four Eyes."

"Sorry, sorry. It's jus' that you should see the look on your face, Red. It was a Kodak moment. Besides, he's pretty good lookin' for a brunet." Yolei said as she had raised her glasses and wiped the tears of her eyes as well as those that had dew on her raised spectacles.

Facing the brunet duelist, she added "Oh yeah, my name's Miyako Inoue and the goggle-headed chicken that ran back to the bus is Daisuke Motimiya."

"I heard that!" came a loud voice from inside the bus.

"Who asked you to listen?" shouted Ruki in return.

While the girls were busy talking, Takuya had tried to place the aroma that wafted to his nose while Daisuke briefly came out of the bus. He was jerked out his earlier thoughts by the bus door being slammed and Miyako's teasing did not help either.

It was when he was about to give up that he had finally remembered. The interior of the bus had smelled like a newly opened fruit stand. It was probably full of apples, oranges, pears, bananas or maybe even all four kinds of fruits.

Takuya had politely excused himself from the two girls and went for a short walk westward. The two had acknowledged his excuse and headed back to their posts.

-oOo-

About fifty feet away from the van, the duelist had finally stopped and looked at his surroundings. The full moon was setting, and there seemed to be little to no traffic in this part of the interstate. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, Takuya had noticed a few things.

Things like: a stray bush, an occasional jack rabbit hopping around, two bright lights moving towards him at high speed across the desert from the North-northwestern direction, a tumble weed rolling by…

Takuya did a delayed double take as he had realized that the two lights were actually Honda Rebel motorcycle head lights. The loud high pitched whine coming from their compact power plants was a clue too loud to ignore.

The brunet had raced back to the van as he knew those cycles belong to scavengers who have roamed these parts for easy prey. Of course, they would not mind taking on a crippled bus and an empty van.

As soon as he buckled up, Takuya had turned the ignition and powered up his vehicle's weapons. The duelist had stepped on the accelerator harder than he normally does and the van had leaped to life.

The Security Six then charged at the nearing cycles before coming back to the road. Luckily for Takuya, his gambit had worked. The cycles' riders had turned their attention away from the bus and were now chasing the fleeing van.

As an added precaution, the brunet duelist had fired a warning shot that made a small geyser of dirt, grass, and small rocks in front of the cycle on the left. The infuriated scavengers had returned fire making small geysers of their own in the van's dusty wake.

The courier driver had led his foes far away enough from the disabled bus to keep Gennai and the others from harm. So he had spun the van around to face the cycles head on. Takuya then set his sights on the right cycle before nailing it with the auto cannon.

The cycle's explosion had thrown its rider clear across the road's shoulder and he had landed in a crumpled heap before losing consciousness. The other rider had shaken his gloved fist at Takuya before making a 180 degree turn, taking his unconscious partner in crime and putting him in his ride's pillion seat before zooming off into the darkness.

With a sigh, Takuya had brought the van back to its previous parking spot in front of the bus. By the time he arrived, Gennai and Ken Ichijouji (the one who was fixing the midi-bus' power plant earlier) had finished fixing the engine. The blue haired young man was now wiping the grease off his hands with a clean washcloth thrown to him by Miyako.

"I sure would like ta thank you folks for helping us out." Ken said as he had shook the arriving brunet's hand. "Just a moment, please."

Ken had opened the door of the bus and disappeared inside, and after a few minutes he had returned with a large box of pears in his hands.

"These pears are pretty green now, and won't be good for no more than ten minutes when they ripen. But when they do ripen, they test heavenly."

The lavender haired young woman was waiting for him near the bus' door. With a quick kiss on her reddening cheeks, the couple had climbed back into the midi-bus and shut the door.

The midi-bus had revved up and continued on its way west, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake. Both Takuya and Gennai had gone back to the van and also left the area quickly.

-oOo-

Interstate 80, east of Elko – 3:00 AM

About an hour later, Takuya had peeked at both his vehicle's odometer and his charge indicator. The odometer was saying that they had traveled one hundred eighty miles since they left Salt Lake City.

The charge indicator had told him that the Security Six's power reserves was about half full and may need a top off at the nearest charging station.

As the van had come over the crest of a hill, a disabled white station wagon (fourth generation Dodge Magnum) was seen at the right side of the road. It had looked like a fresh kill (as it was just stripped of its weaponry), and a gang of scavengers were now dismantling it for salvage.

The duelist shook his head as he had seen scenes like this lots of times before but still did not grow used to it. Gennai had cringed at the sight and shook his head in dismay at the fact that people had resorted to shenanigans like this just to survive. The elder had also looked if there were any survivors that hid themselves in the nearby bushes.

Takuya had led his van closer to investigate as he thought he had spied a blond head within the station wagon. As the Security Six had slowed down and neared the car, the scavengers had gotten mad as they thought some jackass in a blue van was horning in on their prey.

They had immediately dropped whatever they were doing and went for their respective BMW Motoradd F 800 ST motorcycles.

The brunet duelist had noticed the sudden change in attitude of the bikers and immediately peppered one of them with the linked machine guns. He had told Gennai to use the auto cannon on the rest of the scavengers as the bike he had just shot slid on the concrete surface, a complete wreck. Its rider already dead from numerous .50 caliber bullet wounds.

The other three bikers were pissed off and began to surround the van but Gennai's careful aim had taken out another cycle and its rider was thrown to the waiting cold concrete, head first.

The biker had tried to escape but the large and fresh leg wound that he received from his blown motorcycle's scattered parts had hampered his movements greatly.

Knowing that they were completely out gunned, the remaining two cycles had turned tail and quickly disappeared in a cloud of dust. They had ignored their fallen comrade's cries for help then his stream of curses for leaving him behind.

Gennai had told Takuya to administer first aid on the still cursing biker and bring him back to the van. Takuya did not even ask anymore since he knew he would only be answered with the words - "It is the Lord's way to help people in need."

The biker himself had prepared himself for the inevitable as he had seen the approaching van and felt his life slipping away as his eyelids were getting heavier.

The van had stopped a few feet from the cycle and Takuya headed for the fallen biker with a first aid kid. Gennai on the other hand, headed for the car. The brunet had removed the biker's busted helmet and gasped in surprise.

The biker had turned out to be a fourteen year old boy with ruffled light green hair. Takuya had felt the boy's wrist for a pulse, and then lifted his left eyelid.

'He's alive but barely so. He may also be suffering from a minor concussion in his skull apart from his injured leg,' Takuya thought as he had briefly treated the young man's leg wound with penicilin before wrapping it up with the gauze bandage and added some gauze to the biker's bleeding scalp.

With a grunt, the duelist then carried the teenage biker back to the van piggy back style where Gennai and the family from the car were waiting for him.

The woman with light brown hair had nearly freaked out and held her children closer to her when she saw the young biker on Takuya's back but Gennai shushed her quickly.

"Sister Mimi, what would the Lord do if he were in this situation?" The LDS Apostle said as he had led them into the van's middle seat. Takuya, meanwhile, had gently dropped the unconscious biker at the van's rear compartment where the family's luggage were also kept.

'Thank God, the cargo area of the van has more than enough space for this family's entire luggage and this lug nut too,' Takuya thought with a grimace.

As the brunet had returned to his seat, Gennai had introduced him to Yamato Ishida (the blond man), Mimi Ishida (the nearly hysterical woman) and their two children – Iko and Yu. All four family members had nodded as they were introduced.

"Thank you, Mr. Kanbarra. It was sure nice of ya to help us." Yamato said in behalf of his family.

"Yes, but shouldn't we leave the biker here? I mean his friends will surely return to take him back." added Mimi as she was worried about what would happen should the biker suddenly regain consciousness.

"Sister Mimi, I highly doubt he would hurt us given his worsening condition. If we did not bring him to the nearest hospital, he would die of dehydration and blood loss by late morning." answered Gennai in a slightly annoyed tone.

"My apologies, Elder." Mimi said with a slight bow.

Gennai then began his lecture about the Good Samaritan and the virtues of charity. He said that charity is not limited to giving cash to the needy but also spending time caring for them among other things.

Takuya had found himself being interested in the said lecture as did the two children. He had made a mental note to be more considerate to people with physical and/or mental disabilities and also to those already in their twilight years.

The Security Six had continued its way along the interstate as the brunet duelist kept an eye on both the side view and rear view mirrors for trouble. He had also glanced every five minutes or so on the radar while Gennai continued his lecture with the family sitting in the middle seat.

The van's odometer said that they were now 215 miles from Salt Lake City. It was not long before Takuya saw these signs in the van's head light beams.

* * *

_**ELKO**_

_**Next Right**_

_**Next Services at Winnemucca – 131 miles **_

_**This sign is sponsored by **_

_**Last Chance Truck Stop – Elko **_

_**Remember, It is A Long Walk Back**_

* * *

The van had entered Elko at the Mountain City Highway exit on its way downtown. It immediately headed to the nearest hospital with directions taken from the policeman that its driver had met as it exited the interstate. As the Security Six had arrived at the emergency entrance, two attendants had helped the injured biker out of the van.

Gennai had alighted for a few minutes to talk to the nursing station about the hospitalization fees for the wounded biker. After he finished his business with the cashier and making a quick phone call, the Elder of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) Church had returned to the van, grinning from ear to ear.

As the van rolled out of the hospital gates, Gennai had told them the good news. He just called the bishop of the Elko ward and the bishop told him that he would prepare his house for the family's two day stay and also make the necessary arrangements for the next trip. The said church official also had sent a tow truck to retrieve the ishida's crippled car for repairs.

"Thank you, thank you. Elder Gennai. We hope we can make it up to you somehow," gushed Mimi as she had hugged her husband in her joy.

"I agree with Mimi. I hope we can repay you in any way we can, Elder Gennai and Mr. Kanbarra." added Yamato as he had shaken both their hands.

"Yamato, Mimi. It is enough that you and your children (as Gennai had gestured at the young ones who were intently listening at the conversation) are alive and well. That's what matters to us. I am only but a servant of the Lord so there really is no need to repay us. Just do the same to others in the same situation and I think we can call it even."

-oOo-

After the Ishida family had alighted in front of the said bishop's house in West Elko, the kids had asked Takuya to squat for a few minutes before kissing both his cheeks.

The duelist had blushed at the children's actions as he slowly stood up. He had thanked the playful tots (and even ruffled their hair) as the adults had laughed quietly.

Takuya then headed for the nearest truck stop to the I-80 exit as he had planned to top up the van's batteries just in case they run into another battle.

The brown haired teen aged attendant had plugged the charger to the van before returning to his seat and read his temporarily discarded latest copy of Ordnance Weekly.

While the van was charging, the brunet had also bought some high density ammunition for both the machine guns and auto cannon respectively. He also bought some spider mines for the Spear 1000 mine dropper in case he would have to replenish them in the middle of nowhere.

After buying and reloading the high density ammunition (for the machine guns and auto cannon), they had gone to the restaurant beside it.

-oOo-

As the strangely paired duo had entered the nearly deserted restaurant, they had noticed that it was a bit too quiet. A middle-aged man was sitting in the counter drinking a cup of espresso while the teenage waitress was busy wiping dust and some food stains left by earlier customers on one of the tables.

The forty year old cook was busy frying another hamburger-like patty made from algae at the grill. The sliced hamburger bun was being warmed right beside the sizzling light brown patty.

Both Takuya and Gennai had sat down to the left of the man and Takuya talked to him while Gennai ordered two pancakes with syrup and two cups of hot coffee. The man seemed tired but perked up when Takuya had asked him about the Desert Ghost.

"Yeah, I've heard of the Desert Ghost. I stopped by in the truck stop in Winnemucca to satisfy my taste buds on Sid's well known algae loaf. After I had been there for about ten minutes just waiting for my midnight meal, two guys had already gotten into a fist fight. I 'ave no idea what the fight was about since they were already arguing when I arrived. So Sid broke 'em up and told them to take it outside."

The man had sipped a bit of his black coffee before continuing. "Anyway, those two block heads decided to take their unresolved fight on the road. They had gotten into their cars and headed off to the west at high speed. A good ten minutes later, we heard a loud screech, followed by a horrible crash. Four more guys had gone off in their cars to look for 'em and found both cars off the side of the road. Both drivers were already dead and their cars pretty mangled as they had crashed into the rock face that bordered both sides of the road."

He had taken a final sip before replacing the cup on its platter. "It's pretty spooky, y' know. A bunch of other cars has also crashed in that very spot. It's not like it's a hairpin curve or anything. It looks more like somethin' big ran these guys off the road."

The man had pulled out his worn wallet and paid the bill. "As fer me, I'm traveling in the daytime from now on. It's less hazardous to my health, if y' know what I mean."

He stood up and headed out the door.

The opened door had let a rouge breeze enter the restaurant premises, cooling it for a few seconds. Takuya had paid for the meals this time.

The total had amounted to fifty dollars plus a five dollar tip. The blonde waitress had picked it up and even mouthed a thank you to the leaving customers as they had exited the door.

-oOo-

As they neared the van, Takuya was shocked to see the attendant was still sitting in the same position when they had left him about half an hour ago. The teenaged attendant was even reading the same copy of Ordnance Weekly as he did earlier.

Gennai had tapped the brunet on the right shoulder and just told him to start the van. He did and was surprised to see charge indicator registering a full charge.

So the duelist had put his Autobank card in the PAY slot, retrieved it, and pulled it out. His last view of Elko was that of the lanky attendant still reading his worn magazine.

-oOo-

About an hour after leaving Elko, the Security Six had gone over a gentle slope on its way to Battle Mountain. As soon as the van had gone over the rise, Takuya had witnessed an incredible sight.

Over a hundred vehicles composed mostly of motorcycles, some cars, and a couple of vans were parked on the arid landscape on both sides of the road.

Further away from the road was a large gathering of people. a lot of them were sitting around a bonfire, others were paired off in the shadows- doing who knows what, and still others were conducting target practice on bottles placed on top of cars at the other side of the road.

Gennai was shaken from his thoughts by Takuya's loud gasp.

"This must be the Saguaro party that gentleman mentioned while we talked to him back in Wendover. I was right. It's such a waste of youthful energy, which is better harnessed in doing civic duty for the community in general." He remarked sadly.

"Well, I guess they chose ta join this party rather than join a boring civic group… Oops, my apologies for speakin' out of turn, Elder."

"No, you're right, Takuya since you do have a valid point. It's just that couldn't they do something else on a Saturday morning?" said Gennai as he let out a small sigh.

Takuya had held his peace since he could not answer such as question without being disrespectful to his client. The duelist was about to pass the party when he had noticed that the cycles were parked in pairs at both sides of the road.

One pair of cycles would be on the right side, the next pair was in the left side about a meter away from the first pair and so on until the last pair, which was also parked on the right.

The duelist had made his decision to ask them to move the cycles out of the way since thye Security Six may crash into two of them by mistake if he had tried to weave through their little slalom course at eighty miles per hour.

Takuya had parked the van some distance from the cycles and beside a car that had seen better days. He had also asked Gennai to help him convince the bikers to let them pass through.

Gennai had agreed and they went though the throng of people enjoying the early morning party. The party itself seemed to be in full swing with people eating, drinking, and laughing at each others dirty jokes. At least they had drunk more then they had traded stories or even eat.

Takuya himself did not look out of place in this outdoor shindig but Gennai does since he is older than everyone here and he does not look like a biker either. This was why some people turned and stared at them before shrugging their shoulders and go back to their partying ways.

The travellers did ask a few people on who is the big cheese in their gang but were ignored completely. Undeterred, they walked on to the bonfire where they majority hang out.

Along the way, Takuya had noticed a large man wearing a denim jacket with a giant saguaro cactus embroidered on the back. He seemed to be drinking a clear liquid directly from a three liter glass jug.

'Maybe he is drinking Tequila or probably just some variety of Mezcal.' Takuya thought as he had rubbed his chin with his fingers. Nevertheless, he had tapped Gennai on the shoulder and headed for the big man's location.

As they stopped right in front of him, the big man had grinned from ear to ear and clapped Gennai on the shoulder. The force of which was enough to send the disguised elder into the ground.

"Well, well, well! It would seem we have visitors," He said in a booming voice. "How're you? Are ya enjoying our little party?" he asked both Takuya and Gennai. Takuya was helping his client stand up as the big man had apologized for his actions.

Both men had looked at each other before the duelist answered for both of them.

"Yes, it was quite a party but since my companion is in a bit of a hurry, can we ask you to tell your gang to move their cycles so we can pass though?"

"Give a good reason why and I will," the Saguaro leader answered in a threatening tone.

"May we talk somewhere in private, Mr…?" said Gennai in a placating manner.

"Alright, since I am in a good mood today I'll go with you, old timer. Also my name isn't important," He told Gennai.

"But ya have ta take a sip of this Tequila-Blanco that I had jus' bought from the local black market or the deal's off," He said to the duelist as he had pointed the jug's mouth in Takuya's direction.

"Alright, I'll have just one little sip and not a drop more." Takuya replied as he did take a little sip of the jug's contents through a little plastic cup that was given to him by a young biker. 'Yup, it's Tequila-Blanco alright. Better ask Sora for a cup of extra-strength coffee when I stop by her and Taichi's truck stop later.'

The Saguaro leader was impressed with the brunette's affinity to alcohol.

"Alright, you win this bet, old man. Let's talk over there," he said as he pointed at the gray van about fifteen feet from where they were standing.

As they left, Takuya had shook his head to get rid of the slight dizziness he has been feeling and returned to the Security Six.

About twenty minutes later, both the Saguaro leader and Gennai had returned with wide smiles on their faces. The Saguaro leader had told his pack to move the bikes as Takuya had powered up the van.

As expected, there were some moans and a few bikers that bellyached but the cycles were still moved to both sides of the road. Gennai had rolled his window down and waved at the bikers. They in return had fired their weapons into the air and waved back.

"I guess I was wrong. There are people who are more than meets the eye, after all." remarked Gennai before chuckling quietly.

-oOo-

As the Security Six had continued its westward movement, Takuya had mentally patted himself on the back for taking this road at night. By late afternoon, they would be in the California Cascades where the weather is cool and comfortable.

Unfortunately, this would mean that they would be in Reno around noon time. And by then, it would be very hot.

Improved body armor could save someone's life but it has a very unfortunate drawback of trapping heat inside. Thus when the sun has reached its zenith (or highest point) around two o' clock in the afternoon, it would feel like being placed inside a microwave oven.

Takuya had shaken those sobering thoughts out of his head as he spied the holed sign that he has been looking for since the van had left the Saguaro party, a half hour earlier.

* * *

_**BATTLE MOUNTAIN**_

_**Next Right**_

_**Next Facilities at Winnemucca**_

_**56 miles**_

_**This sign sponsored by**_

_**Battle Mountain Truck Stop**_

* * *

Takuya had taken the exit into Battle Mountain. He happily told Gennai that this particular town's truck stop is well-known and a popular rendezvous point for members of the truck driver's Brotherhood. "Meet you at Battle Mountain" is often heard on the trucker's frequency.

Other than the truck stop, there is not much else to visit in town. As the van was parked in the truck stop's parking lot, Takuya had noticed something wrong this time around.

All the lights in the entire truck stop were off, and only two trucks were parked outside. One of the trucks had Halliburton Trucking Company, Rapid City painted in bright yellow on its dark blue door.

Gennai had tapped the duelist's shoulder as the older man had seen a middle aged woman come out of the building.

Takuya's eyes had gone wide as he had recognized the woman's auburn hair that was tied in a messy bun. He then honked the van's horn twice and shouted. "Sora, over hear!"

"What the hell? Takuya, stop makin' that infernal racket this instant, ya hear me? It's driving me crazy!" Sora Yagami said as she had come to the van's driver side door, wagging her right forefinger at the laughing duelist.

"Didn't I tell you before not ta make such a racket especially before dawn? People normally sleep at this hour, y' know." said Sora as she had reached out and twisted Takuya's left ear.

"Ow, ow. I'm sorry, Sora. I won't do it again," Takuya pleaded, his ear cherry red from the twisting. "Oww, I promise."

"You'd better. It's a good thing, my daughter- Sakura isn't here or I won't stop with just your left ear." Sora said as she had released Takuya's sore ear and sighed loudly.

"Where is she, anyways? I thought she'd be here with you since she likes to stay up this late on Saturdays with you and your husband."

"She's sick with the flu and Taichi had already taken her home an hour earlier. So what's this about?"

"Sorry ta hear that, Sora, but can I top off my van's power supply and have a cup of extra-strength coffee too?" pleaded Takuya, his brown gloved hands clasped together.

"Oh all right. Come with me, 'Taki." relented Sora, unable to resist Takuya's pleadings.

They had first set up the charger and went inside the building. As the red-headed co-owner of the truck stop had prepared the brewed Folger's Classic Roast coffee, she had talked about her bad day.

Sora had ranted about the gangs' being out in the open, the Desert Ghost running people off the road, and how it was affecting their business. Takuya had listened patiently to her ranting (while drinking his steaming cup) and paid her fifty dollars for the charge.

By the time they finished, Takuya had returned to the van and hung up the plug on the charger's waiting slot. Sora, meanwhile, was talking to a worried Taichi on her Nokia N70 cell phone. She then entered her car as Takuya had started the van's engine.

Both friends had waved each other good bye as they each went their separate ways.

* * *

Alright, Izumi's introduction is up next and what an introduction it will be. Regarding this chapter, if I had annoyed anyone by means of the dialog or actions done here, I sincerely apologize. I tried to make it believable for most but if I am going to be criticized for this, then I will change it immediately.

I guess this will be the only chapter where I have some cameos of Digimon characters from nearly all seasons. I'll add one more Digimon character in the next chapter since he nearly fits his role like a glove.

Hereunder is a preview of the next chapter:

* * *

Soon they had come over a hill where they saw two dozen wrecks of the right shoulder. Neither Takuya nor Izumi had seen this many wrecks outside of a salvage yard or arena. Takuya was about to mention this fact to Gennai but he wasn't listening. Rather he was pointing at something through the windshield.

* * *

Alright, I'll be seeing you in the next chapter. I do hope you had enjoyed this fan-fiction (along with the rest) as I had done writing it.


	3. Girls, Gangs, and Desert Ghosts, Oh my

Alright, Chapter three is now up. Like I said last chapter, this is where Izumi Orimoto is introduced to the story so expect a lot of laughs and a bit of romance from this chapter onward. Of course, some action and a pinch of drama is added here for more flavor.

Just an added disclaimer: I do not own Le Cirque. That one is a real restaurant in Las Vegas with a very expensive menu (at least it is to me).

I also do not own the song "You Make Me Wanna." The song is made by the disbanded boy band Blue then under Innocent Records.

Legend: words in bold - song title/ artist singing them and words in emphasis and the quote for this chapter. Words in italic - words in road signs

Well, read and enjoy everyone.

* * *

**"I feel good, and I'm not scared at all. I feel kind of ... kind of invincible...Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?"** - Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China

Chapter 3 – **Girls, Gangs, and Desert Ghosts, Oh my**

Interstate 80, West of Battle Mountain – 5:30 AM

The Security Six had not gone that far from Battle Mountain yet when Gennai had spotted a red sports car parked in the highway's right shoulder about a mile ahead.

Upon closer inspection, the car's driver – a five foot five blonde haired beauty in purple improved body armor was hopping on one foot as she had just kicked her car's driver side door in anger.

Takuya had recognized the young woman as soon as he had seen her. She was the girl that he had fantasizing about for nearly a year now. He had also remembered that her full name was Izumi Orimoto.

He had parked the van just behind the red Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 and walked up to the girl who had recovered from the pain in her foot.

Taukya was hoping to score some brownie points from his long time crush by fixing the car's power plant or maybe towing it back to Battle Mountain. Unfortunately, all his hopes of impressing the girl were shattered when she had asked him if the Security Six was his van.

"Yes, it is. Haven't we met before, Miss…?" Takuya had tried to remind the blonde about their first meeting only a year before yet was careful about being too obvious about it for a good reason.

"Ah, yes. Aren't you that dumb ass brunet whose blue van had rear ended my old (Ford) Focus more than a year ago in Las Vegas?" Izumi said as her green eyes had narrowed to slits. "And yes, I still remember our 'meeting' a year ago, Mr. Takuya Kanbarra."

Takuya sighed as that was exactly how they met a year ago. His excuse at the time was that he had been distracted by his gunner when in truth he just could not take his eyes of her. Junpei had teased him about it whenever he could as payback for being Takuya's fall guy in front of the girl when they had met her back then.

"Look, I'm really sorry that we met in such a bad way but I did pay for the damages and even treated you to dinner back then." The brunet member of the Last Frontier Courier Service had now remembered that he had paid almost half of his entire earnings in that particular courier job for both for the repairs and the restaurant bill.

The duelist had made a mental note to refrain from daydreaming while driving whenever possible. Not only was it dangerous but also draining on his wallet when he does get an accident. He and Junpei did have auto insurance but sometimes, cash on hand is much more preferable.

It was just his bad luck that Takuya and Junpei had just completed a high paying courier job prior to the accident, only for the former to lose about half of his share in the process.

"Oh alright, you did treat me to dinner at the restaurant of my choosing back then." Izumi agreed as she had tapped her right cheek with her forefinger and saw Gennai looking at them from the gunner seat of the van.

"So where are you guys headed? Reno? Stockton? Los Angeles?" Izum,i asked as she had changed the subject.

"Actually, we are on our way to San Francisco." Takuya answered her while mentally releasing his breath at the change in tone of the attractive blonde girl's voice.

"What a coincidence. I was on my way there too when this piece of junk had conked out on me," Izumi said as she had pointed at her stalled car.

"Maybe I can help. I know a few things about fixing power plants." Takuya replied as he had offered his services in a last ditch attempt to impress Izumi.

"Don't bother, Takuya. I already called the towing services before you guys arrived. We'll just have to wait until they get here," She replied haughtily. "You can carry my luggage to your van though."

The brunet then looked at the five luggage bags that were placed beside the car's rear left wheel and groaned. With a shrug, he had carried all of them to the van's storage area, two at a time.

-oOo-

Sure enough, a towing truck arrived about ten minutes after the Security Six did. Izumi had paid the driver and headed for the van. She then sat on the driver's seat to both Gennai's and Takuya's surprise. The brunet could not believe that he was now relegated to gunner status again in the course of a few hours.

"Excuse me, Izumi but aren't I supposed to be sitting there since this is **my** van." The duelist said huffily as he had placed the last luggage on the van's rear cargo area.

"Yes I know, but I can see that you seem to needing a nap yourself. The last thing I need right now is a drowsy driver," the bank manager replied as she had started the power plant.

"She does have a point, Takuya. So how about taking a short nap before you two change places in Winnemucca?" said Gennai. He then faced their new driver before saying. "Oh yes, my name is Gennai Whitney. What is your name, young lady?"

"I'm Izumi Orimoto. You could say I'm an old acquaintance of your driver," Izumi replied as she had shook the older man's brown gloved hand.

Outside the gunner's door, Takuya was about to voice his protest at being made a gunner in his own van but had stopped himself as he had seen his reflection in the right side mirror. His red eyes were a bit droopy from driving for over four hours with only a few stops along the way and no sleep at all.

"Alright, you win. Take the wheel, Izumi." Takuya relented with an audible sigh.

He had gone to the gunner's seat as Gennai had alighted and had strapped himself in. The LDS elder meanwhile had returned to his old seat at the middle.

"Thanks, Takuya. Now rest up and I'll drive us to Winnemucca." Izumi said with a sunny smile as she had brought the van back to the highway.

She was actually glad that the Security Six had arrived as it did. As she adjusted the rear view mirror, Izumi had noticed that the sky slowly began to turn purple.

'Dawn is coming, better be keep my eyes peeled for trouble.' she reflected. Dawn and dusk are the times when road visibility is at its worst, thus the perfect time for roadside ambushes.

-oOo-

An hour later, the blue van was now entering a small valley. Takuya had glanced at the odometer just as he was about to sleep. It said that they had already traveled 309 miles since they left Salt Lake. Moreover, he had seen this holed sign on his side of the road:

* * *

_WINNEMUCCA 43 Miles _

_LOVELOCK 114 Miles_

_RENO 207 Miles _

_This sign is sponsored by Uncle Al's Auto Shop _

_And Gunnery Shop in the heart of _

_Down town Reno_

* * *

Satisfied that they were about half of the way through the trip, the duelist had closed his brown eyes and relaxed. Izumi, on the other hand, had thought back to what had happened in Las Vegas that fateful April day in the year 2036.

Izumi was just driving along without a care in the world in the busy thruways of Las Vegas. She had just been promoted to bank manager in the Bank of America - Las Vegas branch from her former position in the accounts department.

The newly promoted manager was so oblivious to her surroundings that she did not notice the blue Security Six coming up fast behind her.

As she had stopped at a busy intersection, Izumi had felt a sudden push from behind which coincided with a loud crunch. To her horror, she had seen the Security Six's nose right on top of her metallic blue car's trunk lid, which looked slightly dented.

The enraged blonde was forced to park her car on the other side of the intersection since the light had just turned green when she was hit from behind. The van had parked right in front of her car and a five foot seven inch tall young man with shaggy brown hair stepped out of the driver seat.

Izumi had confronted the driver who had made up an excuse that his gunner was distracting him so he did not saw her car stop until it was too late. She then confronted the fat gunner who had apologized to her.

The bank manager had known something was up when the gunner nodded slightly to someone behind her. Her suspicions were confirmed when the gunner who had called himself Junpei had a few holes in his story as if it was just made to confirm the driver (Takuya's) excuse.

She had asked them to treat her to dinner at Le Cirque. Both men had blanched as they knew they could barely afford to eat there much less treat someone else.

But they later had changed their minds and not only paid their meals but also paid for the repairs on her car. The three even had small talk during dinner after introducing themselves properly. Her last memory of them was Junpei putting an arm around his friend before putting the smaller man in a choke hold.

Izumi had never expected to see Takuya here of all places and even wondered on what has happened to Junpei since he wasn't in the van. She hoped that Junpei's alright, wherever he was.

Izumi had again looked at her gunner and had to smile at the drool coming out of the lower corner of his mouth. When sound asleep, Takuya had looked like a twenty-two year old kid dreaming of die cast dueling machines with interchangeable parts.

'I have to admit, he looks really cute when asleep.' Izumi had thought absently just before she felt her cheeks suddenly heating up a bit.

Realizing what she had just thought, the blonde young woman had shook her head violently. 'What am I thinking? Get a hold of your self, Izumi.'

The blonde duelist had just shaken those strange thoughts out of her head just in time to see some shadowy figures up ahead. Two armed men, wearing body armor, seemed to be waiting to ambush them on the rock cliffs a few feet above the narrow path ahead of the next corner.

She had panicked and fired an auto cannon round on one of the figures.

Both men in the van were woken up by the sound of the auto cannon being fired. Izumi did not pay any attention to them when she saw that the man had a large hole in his midsection with some cracks along its edges as it slowly fell.

Normally when a high density auto cannon round hits a man, it would exit at his back with a messy splattering of blood and man himself would be pushed back to the cliff face by the sheer brute force of the 40mm high density round upon impact .

Izumi had stopped the van with a loud screech. Her mind had stopped working as she could not believe what she just saw. Takuya had to shake her out of her catatonic state.

Together the two duelists had exited the van and walked closer to see what had happened to the "man". The apostle was told to stay put in case this was a trap. All three had thought it was strange that there was no return fire from the second man on the other side of the road.

When the two neared the "victim", they had discovered to their dismay that it was only a plywood silhouette that was made to look like an armed man in body armor. The said silhouette was holed right where the round had hit it.

Both Izumi and Takuya were so angry that they were tricked in such a manner that they shot the other one, who was positioned on the other side of the road, repeatedly with their hand weapons (an M-4A1 assault rifle carried by Takuya and an HK416 assault rifle carried by Izumi) before returning to the Security Six in disgust.

The second plywood silhouette had also fallen to the ground, literally holed from head to toe.

"What happened back there?" Gennai wailed as Takuya and Izumi were strapping themselves to their seats. The Latter Day Saint apostle had witnessed the brutal shooting of the second figure.

"What happened was we had been played like a harmonica. Those guys aren't guys at all but rather plywood silhouettes made to look like armed men," Takuya said angrily. "As to whoever is behind this, I wish I knew."

He then fell back on his seat and crossed his arms.

Izumi had rolled her eyes at her gunner's immature antics but knew she had felt the same way he did. She had turned on the engine and returned to the road, wary for more surprises.

After ten minutes of nothing, all three had relaxed their guard for a bit. Takuya had noticed a bit of activity on a distant side road but brushed it off as a pair of hikers on their way to their next rest stop.

Remembering something, the brunet duelsit then told his companions about how the scenery here had reminded him of the times his father had taken him to the mountains of Idaho for some hiking and fishing.

Takuya could almost imagine the mountain's cool breeze as the sun slowly rises from the east. How the said breeze had carried within it various smells of nature like scents of the mountain flowers that bloom in the springtime, the smell of pine cones bursting out of their shells, and even the stench of a deer's dung, which was left by an unconcerned young stag in the above ridge.

The other two occupants of the van had gotten a good laugh as the brunet had snapped out of his self-induced trance with a grimace. The stench in his daydream had reminded Takuya of the moose dung that he accidentally stepped on along the way to his father's secret fishing spot.

Izumi stopped laughing as she had spotted three more figures on the rock bridge above them. She had aimed the auto cannon at the figures and they had immediately lay flat, making themselves as small a target as possible.

She had told both Takuya and Gennai to get ready for anything as her woman's intuition had advised her on incoming danger.

Her instincts had proved correct as three vehicles: a mid size car (a gray Ford Taurus), a compact car (a green Chevrolet Cobalt), and a blue T-Rex reverse trike had emerged from behind large rocks formations at the both sides of the valley.

The female duelist knew running was not an option as the three men on the ridge were still taking potshots at them from their sniping area. Also the road seemed to be neglected by the local road maintenance agencies for quite some time now.

There were enough potholes to seriously damage the van's heavy suspension and maybe even dent the vehicle's undercarriage as well when going through them at high speed.

The two of the three men on the ridge had set up their tripod mounted recoilless rifles with high explosive squash head (HESH) ammunition while the third was armed with a portable micro-missile launcher

For now, all their enemies had just added more potholes on the already notoriously bad highway. Takuya had managed to knock out the delta tricycle with a combination of the spider mines and accurate auto cannon fire.

The other two vehicles had managed to avoid the mines that fell into the potholes but were still damaged by those mines that did not.

More 30 mm recoilless rifle rounds and 10 mm diameter missiles from above made some hits in the van's roof and Izumi had to weave a bit to prevent the snipers from disabling the van's auto cannon.

Unfortunately, the van's zigzagging had slowed it down enough for the remaining two vehicles to inch even closer as the later had poured a horizontal rain of rockets and bullets at it.

Takuya had tried to disable the remaining two chasing vehicles with the auto cannon but could not due to the latter's surprising nimbleness and Izumi's evasion tactics. Both the rear and side armors were already taking a beating from a combined machine gun and rocket attack.

As a last resort, Izumi had made a sudden bootlegger's reverse and charged at the surprised pursuers. This maneuver had brought the machine guns into play as their combined firepower when added to the auto cannon rounds made short work of the pursuit cars' plastic armor and demolished them completely.

After all the gun smoke and dust had cleared, the Security Six had made another 180 degree turn and hightailed out the valley at full speed. The van had only slowed down when the driver had realized that no one was shooting at them or even chasing them.

Takuya had settled for a second nap as Izumi sighed in relief.

-oOo-

Forty five minutes later, the blonde driver had seen another shot up sign up ahead of the curve she just passed:

* * *

_WINNEMUCCA_

_Next Exit_

* * *

She had remembered the local branch manager of the said town once told her that the city styled itself as the "City of the Paved Streets."

'It would be much better if they paved that earlier portion of the I-80 instead,' Izumi thought acidly.

The Security Six had entered the western part of the town through the eastbound exit tollgate. Izumi had brought the van to the nearest charging station that is next to a small restaurant.

She then waked her two sleeping companions before parking the van beside the charging generators of a small charging station. Both men had stretched their arms as they yawned loudly to their driver's dismay.

-oOo-

The trio had left the van to have a quick breakfast on the adjacent restaurant. The menu is standard fare composed of fake steak (cooked algae made to look like a steak), real-home fried potatoes and syntha-coffee. Just for the heck of it, all three had decided to add three fried eggs – all of them sunny side up.

"So where are you heading, friends?" The plump waitress asked while she had served their orders.

"Well, all three of us are heading to San Francisco by way of Reno." Takuya said gleefully as the food had tasted real good.

"Well, in that case, you three better be careful in Reno since the city's police chief is way below quota and even told his traffic lieutenant to give tickets for vehicles that went over the intersection line even by a few inches." She said as the three customers laughed. "Even worse, they can even give tickets to those that made a running stop and not a full stop at a STOP sign."

Takuya and the others really had enjoyed eating and even chatting with the talkative waitress when she was not busy taking the orders of the other customers. After their meal ended, Gennai had paid their bill and even included a ten dollar tip for the hospitable waitress.

The apostle then separated from the other two as he would arrange a quick repair of the Security Six with the mechanic of the garage. He had seen the heavy damage on its side and rear armors when they had alighted and made plans to have it fixed a bit.

"A little delay is much better than being stranded in the middle of nowhere," he said as explanation to his traveling companions.

-oOo-

The pair had crossed the now busy street to check with the American Autoduel Association (AADA) office here in Winnemucca. The said office is tucked away in a corner of a general store across the street from the charging station the van is currently being charged and given some impromptu armor patching.

The kind woman behind the counter had taken Takuya's membership card and later Izumi's as the blonde had argued with the brunet that she too is an accomplished duelist as well as a bank manager.

The brunet had scoffed at her proof as a capable duelist, conveniently forgetting her part in the three -on- one fight hours earlier

The woman had laughed heartily at the arguing duo. She had even remarked that they had acted like they were married for a year or two. Their red faces and stuttering replies had sufficiently hinted that she had gotten the wrong impression and had apologized for her insensitivity.

To change the subject the woman had asked them where they were going.

"Oh, we are going to San Francisco by way of Reno." answered Takuya, relieved that Izumi did not make another scene at the guide's joke. Still that comment, even in jest, had left him feeling confused. A part of him had hoped that it would come true someday but another part told him that they were never meant to be after all.

The receptionist then typed the words San Francisco and Reno on the AADA route database shown on her monitor's screen and pressed the enter key.

"Hmm…" the guide said as she had tapped her fingers on the wooden counter top as she read the readout from the screen.

"There seems to be plenty of activity in that route, all the way to the California border. Most activities are made by cycle gangs, although there were a few reports of strange stuff. One particular case is of people being run of the road and crashing into the canyon walls or each other in some cases by a mysterious entity," She had told the two duelists as soon as the readouts were seen in the monitor.

"They have called the entity 'the Desert Ghost'. Reports are still sketchy since there were no survivors from the crashes themselves. The only good sources of information were travelers who saw something eerie just minutes before arriving at the scene itself." The receptionist then paused for a quick drink of coffee.

"They still don't know what that something is as it just disappeared into thin air. It did not even register in any of their sensors. AADA advices caution in Reno since the Reno Police Department - Traffic division is giving tickets for any and all traffic violations especially dueling in city limits. They also advice extreme caution in Vallejo since it is 'Gang Day' out there."

The receptionist had removed her glasses and rubbed her green eyes momentarily. As she replaced her glasses, the woman had looked across the street at the currently charging van in the service station.

"Is that blue Security Six yours by any chance?" she asked them.

"Yes, it is." Takuya said as he had reasoned that there was a good reason why he was asked.

"Ah. There were two guys in three-piece suits that came in when we opened up this morning. They were looking for a van with that description. Would you like to leave a message for them?"

"Erm, thank you but we'd rather not. C'mon, Izumi. I think Gennai is calling us." The brunet had grabbed the blonde's right arm and they quickly crossed the street back to the service station and stepped into its large lobby.

-oOo-

Seeing an old man ranting against the scrolling headlines as the only other person in the whole lobby, Takuya had slammed Izumi roughly to the light green concrete wall where the slot machines are and quickly closed the distance between them.

To anyone else, they would think that both of them were lovers who like to play rough and were now going to make out beside the slot machines.

In reality, Takuya had leaned closer to Izumi's face to apologize and told her the whole story without being too obvious about it. Only when he had finished telling her the whole story did she knee him in the groin as payback for the rough treatment he had given her earlier.

"I guess I deserved that. I'm really sorry, Izumi." Takuya said as he had crumpled to the floor, his voice a little strained at the genital induced agony.

"Good. Never ever do that to a real lady such as myself," She said angrily. The still enraged bank manager and duelist had stormed to the NANS ticker at the opposite corner of the lobby. She had also ignored the leering looks from the man as she neared the ticker itself.

As Izumi was putting her auto bank card into the ticker's card slot, Takuya had joined her and was currently reading the headlines being scrolled above the machine silently. The lead story was still the airship explosion but Gennai's name is now mentioned prominently.

Meanwhile, the screen had cleared and showed the familiar menu asking which section she wanted. The blonde had picked "World News" option, followed by "Gennai Whitney" option and lastly print.

Five minutes later, Izumi was holding twelve pages worth of news about the Deseret Air explosion. She had gone to the couch that was placed in the rear of the lobby with Takuya following her at a distance.

Izumi then shared the twelve pages with her traveling companion who sat beside her, the latter careful to leave some space in between them.

One particular story had caught her attention as she gently nudged Takuya's side. The young man had put down the print outs that he was reading and inched closer to his secret crush. The article went as follows:

* * *

_One highly-placed Deseret government official, who declined to be named, speculated that the doomed airship was deliberately sabotaged. _

"_Whitney was known to favor returning some functions of government to the United States." said the anonymous official. "We have reason to believe the accident was related to his political activity." _

_Other sources inside the Mormon Church have revealed more cause for concern. _

_An hour before Gennai boarded the airship, an anonymous caller phoned LDS Church headquarters. _

_The caller said, "We want Gennai off that airship and out of politics, or he is going to seriously regret it." _

_While threats against church officials are very common, the sources said, it was unusual for a caller to specify an airship. _

_The caller was the only one who did mention the airship._

* * *

Takuya had shuddered at the thought that whoever was out to get Gennai was going to have to go through him and Izumi to do it. The brunet duelist then realized how dangerous this particular run is compared to other courier jobs where he just got paid to transport important items or people from one place to another.

Thankfully, the old man in the lobby had left quickly upon seeing Takuya stand behind the blonde. The young woman herself was too busy waiting for the ticker print out earlier to notice the courier's august presence.

"Are you alright?" said Izumi as she had seen her traveling companion shiver involuntarily while staring at the ticker copy in his gloved hand.

"Yeah, I'm cool." Takuya replied as he had looked around for a bit.

"It's just that Deseret First is dead serious in their self-styled quest to keep their independence no matter what it takes," The brunet duelist had continued in a stage whisper before sighing loudly.

Taking his left arm, the young woman had led the brunet to the slot machines so that he could relax a bit. "That's true. Maybe somebody from their side had poisoned Junpei too so Gennai could postpone his appointment in San Francisco."

"Hmm, that would make a lot of sense in a twisted sort of way. Still how would they know about Gennai hiring us when we met briefly in his home? " Takuya replied as he had placed his auto bank card into the required slot and pulled the lever down.

"Hmm, maybe they had some inside information. Also now that we are continuing the trip, they'll be after all of us." Izumi replied as she had mimicked Takuya's action.

"Us? You can always say that we picked you up in the middle of nowhere so they can set you free."

"Nah, after you told me everything, I chose to help you guys out. Besides, what will you ever do without me?" Izumi said as she had struck a Wonder Woman pose before laughing at her friend's shocked expression.

Both duelists had finished playing the slot machines and were now retrieving their auto bank cards.

"Ok, you two. The van's fully charged. We can head out now." Gennai said as he had poked his head in the doorway telling them to hurry up. The soon to be couple picked up all printed copies from the couch and left the lobby quickly.

-oOo-

As they had returned to the chargers, the trio had seen the female attendant plugging the charger back in its slot. The said attendant then asked for the payment of the charge which costs fifty dollars. Gennai had drawn his auto bank card and handed it to her.

The female attendant had just inserted the card into the charger's pay slot when she did a bit of a double take.

"Hey, old man." She said loudly. "Aren't you the guy in the airship crash? Weren't you supposed to be dead? I just saw you on in the late night news on TV last night. So how come you're here?"

Takuya had pulled the stunned Gennai back to the van as Izumi retrieved the auto bank card that was now sticking out of the pay slot, ignoring the still-confused attendant.

As soon as all three were inside the Security Six, Izumi had started the engine and the van hightailed out of Winnemucca as fast as it legally could.

-oOo-

Interstate 80, west of Winnemucca – 8:30 AM. Saturday

Twenty minutes had passed by quickly, and the van was now as far away from Winnemucca as possible. Gennai was upset that their cover was blown by that blabbermouth in the charging station.

Takuya had tried to reassure him that even if their cover was blown; they could still continue their journey to San Francisco. The LDS Elder smiled at the reassuring words.

Izumi was now stretching in her seat as she tried to work the kinks out of her neck. She had never driven so hard before in her life. She than wished that she could take a vacation after all this is over.

Maybe a nice long vacation in Idaho's mountain trails with her cute gunner would be a good idea. Izumi did a mental double take at the kind of thoughts she has been having lately. She had shook her head to clear it and continued driving.

Soon the van had come over a hill where they had seen two dozen wrecks off the right shoulder. Neither Takuya nor Izumi had seen this many wrecks outside of a salvage yard or an arena.

Takuya was about to mention this fact to Gennai but he was not listening. Rather, he was pointing at something through the windshield.

Both driver and gunner had looked at what Gennai was pointing at and gasped. A giant scorpion was straddling the road in front of them. The humongous arthropod looked a lot like a giant desert hairy scorpion, only this one was about twenty feet high and twice as long.

Moreover, the said scorpion seemed to be trying to reach them with its right lobster-like claw and raised its stinger as if they were its prey.

Izumi had managed to bring the van to a stop a good fifty feet away from the monster. Takuya had shakily aimed the auto cannon at the scorpion's head and fired. All three occupants of the van had closed their eyes momentarily, expecting a gushing of green blood from where the round would hit.

After shaking their heads to erase the disturbing image, the three occupants of the Security Six were surprised to see the scorpion still standing. The brunet had thought enough is enough. He had exited from the van and went for a closer look on the scorpion.

Takuya could not and would not believe that a 40mm high-density round could not penetrate a scorpion's cuticle, no matter how thick it was. Izumi and Gennai had yelled at him to come back or he would die.

The young woman had even fired the auto cannon again to divert the creature's attention back to the van.

Takuya had ignored their warnings and watched the aluminum shell with tungsten core round pass through the scorpion's head or prosoma. There was not even any entry or exit point where the round had gone through the scorpion's cuticle.

He then ran to the monster's front leg and tried to put his hand inside. His hand had gone straight through as if the scorpion was not even there.

'This has to be an illusion,' Takuya thought with wonder. As he ran back to the van, the brunet duelist had looked back at the scorpion once again. The image seemed to be translucent as he could see the barren landscape behind it.

Also it was completely silent – no squeaks from its joints, no clacks from its claws, or creaks from its cuticles.

Takuya had walked to the driver side window and told Izumi and Gennai everything that he knew. The brunet had also told them to park the van past the scorpion and meet him at the large tower in the distance after he took his assault rifle from the van.

A beam of some sort that seemed to be making the image of the scorpion probably came from the said tower.

-oOo-

By the time Takuya had stopped in front of the old brick tower, both Izumi and Gennai had caught up with him. They had noticed a bluish glow coming from the top of the tower as well as a low windowless cinder-block building with a solar panel on its roof next to it.

Looking at the ground, they had seen a lot of footprints all around the building. There were even several off-road tricycles parked at the building's broader side. All trikes had scorpions painted on their gas tanks.

Gennai was about to knock on the door when his hand was stopped by Takuya. The brunet had also made a shushing gesture with the other hand. So they entered the building quietly as the door was strangely unlocked.

Their first impression of the room they had entered was that it was a laboratory dedicated to scorpion research.

There were glass cages everywhere. Each one glass was holding scorpions whose lengths ranged from two inches to about a foot. A sectioned scorpion tale had hung haphazardly from the ceiling.

Finally, bottles filled with strange liquids and powders had filled the shelves on each wall. In the middle of this, two young men with threadbare armor and several days' growth of beards were busy sawing logs while sleeping on the dusty floor.

There were two more doors leading from this room. The door on the left lead to a stairway going up and the second door lead to a room on the right side of the building. Gennai had taken the right door and promised that he would be careful not to wake the sleeping men. The remaining two had taken the left.

-oOo-

As Takuya and Izumi had emerged on the top floor, they were surprised to see a lot of electronic gadgets there, either buzzing, whirring or flashing. A device that looked like some sort of spotlight was in the middle of the room.

Curious at what they would see, the pair had looked in the direction the "spotlight" was pointed and again they had seen the image of the scorpion on the interstate and another car that was running towards it.

The two duelists had frantically searched for the off switch, before accidentally pushing against it. The scorpion immediately disappeared.

Puzzled by the disappearance of the scorpion's image, they had experimented by pointing the projector on another window and sure enough, the image of the giant scorpion was seen in the arid wastelands a few miles away.

This time, they had turned off the spotlight before heading for the stairs.

-oOo-

The pair quickly headed down to check up on the LDS apostle. As they arrived, both Takuya and Izumi had noticed that Gennai was not alone. The man (beside the elder) has dark red hair and wore a dirty lab coat. The man had introduced himself as Dr. Koushiro Izumi. The two duelists then introduced themselves as they had shaken the researcher's hand.

The newly formed group had devised a plan to surprise the two men in the other room as they sat on the floor. Minutes later, the duelist pair had taken the men's guns and prodded them with it.

The remaining two older men had served as look outs, in case something would go wrong. The thugs had woken up from the repeated prodding and realized that they were duped. They had raised their hands in the air as they stood up. As the thugs were being tied up by the two duelists, Koushiro had told them the whole story.

"These two malcontents were just advance men from a scavenger gang. They have been using the scorpion hologram to run cars of the road, after which they radio the rest of the gang to come and pick up the kill." He had explained as quickly as he could.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but you do a lot of research on scorpions don't you?" asked Izumi, her stomach feeling a bit queasy from the various scorpion paraphernalia all around them.

"Yes I am," Koushiro answered with a curt nod. "I'm a Ph.D. candidate in zoology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and to earn my degree, I went here to study scorpions since a most of my research is on the regeneration of limbs by insects and other arthropods and how it can be done by humans without resorting to cloning."

"Wow, that is amazing!" gushed Gennai as he had also harbored an interest to advances in science and technology.

"Thank you, Gennai. I have used the hologram because I like high-tech toys and because it was useful camouflage. My scheme for complete privacy fell apart when these two nitwits had driven through the mountain I had projected over this tower."

"I have an idea on how to get rid of these scavengers for good," said Takuya with an evil grin.

As the other three persons had heard the plan, they smiled and laughed as they imagined how the Scorpions would look like in the back seat of a police cruiser when this was all over.

After turning on the transmitter, Koushiro had fiddled with the dials while trying to remember the Scorpion's frequency.

"How 'boutcha Scorpions, how 'boutcha? Got one for ya at the usual place. Nice juicy one too," He said on the mike while trying to keep himself from laughing.

After the gang had confirmed, Koushiro had changed frequencies to the Reno police department channel. Gennai had explained to the police what the Desert Ghost really was and how they could catch the scavengers.

-oOo-

In the meantime, the other three partners in crime had mounted two of the trikes that were parked in front and headed for the van. Takuya then moved the van out of sight right after Koushiro and Izumi had gotten inside the building.

They were just in time since the Scorpions had just arrived when the van had hid itself in a nearby up cropping of rock.

The Scorpions were surprised to see that their "nice juicy kill" had turned out to be two of their own trikes and even more so when the Reno police had arrived in force. The police had questioned the three witnesses while Gennai hid somewhere in the tower.

The apostle had only come out when the police had left with their prisoners and evidences. The traveling trio then left the researcher who had also made his scorpion hologram wave them good bye.

As soon as they were out of the researcher's sight, both duelists had heaved their breakfast out their respective windows while Gennai laughed heartily.

-oOo-

It was around 11:30 in the morning when the Security Six had reached Sparks, a suburb of Reno. The houses and businesses were a welcome site from the usual arid desert and barren buttes. Izumi even spoke out loud that they were entering civilization again. There was a sign that said:

* * *

_RENO Next 3 Open Exits_

_Exits 14 and 16 Closed_

_Due to Structural Damage_

_Do Not Use These Exits_

_This sign is sponsored by_

_Uncle Al's Auto Stop and Gunnery Shop_

_Follow the signs in Downtown Reno!_

* * *

Yet another sign warned:

* * *

_NO RECREATIONAL DUELING _

_IN TOWN OUTSIDE ARENAS! _

_This law is strictly enforced. _

_This sign is sponsored by _

_City of Reno Police Department_

* * *

"Izumi, could we please stop by in Reno? I have a friend living here and I could use his home as a temporary safe house. I will also need his telephone to check on Salt Lake, call my wife, that sort of thing. As for you two, enjoy your selves for a while." Gennai said in polite yet authoritative manner.

"Of course, El-Gennai. When should we pick you up?" replied the young woman.

"Pick me up whenever you finished your business here, of course. But I would prefer that you would pick me up by three in the afternoon."

"No problem, Gennai." Takuya answered as he had followed Gennai's directions to a house in a residential section of Reno. It was a little hard to find so Takuya had made a makeshift map so they could pick up the apostle later.

-oOo-

The first thing on their list was find a restaurant. The brunet was looking through the latest edition of the North American Road Atlas and Survival Guide to find one in the immediate area. It was a bit difficult at first since there were a lot of restaurants in Reno nearby, the city itself being a haven for tourists of all ages.

The brunet duelist had later narrowed their choices to three: The Palm Tree – an expensive restaurant but it is the closest to where they are now parked, The Print of Whales – not much was said about it but just be prepared for a surprise, and finally, Barney's – a hash house whose food "is not the greatest in the world but it is still not as bad as Willie's in Salt Lake."

While waiting for the green light, Izumi had made a show of thinking deeply for a moment (her chin resting on her left fist while her eyes closed in deep thought) but Takuya had already known what she would pick - The Palm Tree.

-oOo-

Ten minutes later, the pair were sitting in a posh table in the said posh restaurant waiting for their respective orders of fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, green peas and a glass of milk. They had also added two banana cream pies a la mode for desert.

The song **You Make Me Wanna** that was sung by **Blue** was blaring through the restaurant's many speakers.

Both Takuya and Izumi were chatting happily as they ate when they had suddenly realized that neither Gennai nor Junpei were with them. This led to a rather obvious conclusion that they were now on a date. The maitre'd had even given some options that suggested to that fact.

This was why the couple's later conversation became rather stilted, which was not a good thing for their audience (the other restaurant's other patrons and the staff) who were surprised at the sudden change in atmosphere between the two.

The kind maitre'd had even whispered some suggestions in Takuya's ear to liven up their conversation as he had someone in his staff videotape their excited chatter earlier for a planned television commercial, which they would unveil next month.

So when Takuya and Izumi did converse normally, a video camera had caught the spontaneity of it on film.

After the duelists had their meal, Takuya had tried to add a ten dollar tip to their tab for the helpful maitre'd but the latter had shrugged it off by saying it was his job to satisfy the customers' needs. He had even escorted the two on their way out of the restaurant.

The puzzled couple was so impressed by the gracious service that they did not even question the real reason behind it. It was only three months later that both duelists had realized why they were given the royal treatment by the Palm Tree establishment to their shared horror and embarrassment.

-oOo-

The pair had entered the blue van and headed out of the parking lot when they had realized they were being followed. A blue four door Honda Civic (2006 model), with a Vulcan machine gun in its turret, was discreetly tailing their vehicle.

By staying out of their weapon's range, its driver was trying to make himself less of a threat since he could not attack them. Takuya, who had taken hold of the wheel, had asked his gunner on what they should do.

"Let's lose him at Wells Avenue, Takuya." The blond answered with a grin.

"Oh yeah, I remembered there was a big traffic jam when we passed by it on our way to Gennai's friend's house."

The Security Six had entered the now slow moving traffic at N Wells Avenue. The charge indicator was running a bit low but they had managed to turn the van at a side street.

As for their pursuer, he was stuck in traffic since he had entered the said street while the van was already a quarter of a mile in.

Also the duel car in front of him had stopped because of an overheated radiator thereby adding to the problems of the Civic's driver as he was using up the rest of his vehicle's charge in trying to escape the traffic jam.

The brunet courier then drove the van to the nearest service station on 9th street to charge the van's hungry power plant.

The charge had only taken thirty minutes but since there was neither a NANS ticker nor a bank of slot machines, the couple had to talk about unimportant stuff just to pass the time.

-oOo-

As Takuya and Izumi had just exited the service station and made a left turn at N Wells Ave, a familiar Honda Civic was again seen in their van's rear-view mirror.

"Persistent little buggers, aren't they?" said Takuya in jest.

"You're right, they sure are persistent. So how about we scare them a little, Takuya? Is that alright with you?"

"As long as we lose these pains in the rear bumpers, I'm fine with it."

The van had slowed to weapon's range as the auto cannon had swiveled to the rear and the mine dropper was opening up. Several drivers had sensed that duel is about to begin and had either moved to a far lane or turned off at the next intersection.

The blue sedan had maintained its speed and went past the van before turning to a side street a block away. The sedan's rear variable rocket pod was closed. Izumi had powered down the van's weapons, in response.

Takuya did not follow the sedan's obvious bait. Instead, the van had passed the side street and headed for a garage on the corner of N Wells Ave and E 5th street. The garage itself has prided itself with its high tech equipment and efficient staff.

The said establishment even had four Karakuchi maintenance bots – two of which were from the MTB series and the rest, the BRS series for both male and female customers.

The van was fully repaired within thirty minutes. Takuya then paid the staff with Gennai's auto bank card which the LDS apostle had given them as the latter had disembarked at his friend's house before leaving.

-oOo-

Both duelists had to groan as they had once again seen the blue sedan trailing them from a safe distance as they had returned to the main highway.

"This is getting ridiculous, Izumi. I've got half a mind to talk to that nitwit," said Takuya, as his fists were clenching the poor steering wheel.

"Hey for all we know, he may be one of those Deseret First guys or their 'hired help'." Izumi said in reply. "Let's just ignore him for now. We still need to stop at Uncle Albert's right?"

"Yeah, yeah. I hear you."

The Security Six then headed for Uncle Albert's Auto Stop and Gunnery Shop with the blue sedan still following it.

As the van had parked inside the establishment's two hectare parking area, that surrounded the whole building, Takuya sighed in relief as the sedan did not follow them in and went off somewhere else.

-oOo-

The couple was awed at how large the place is as they went inside. Aisles were stacked in columns from one end of the building to another. At their immediate right are the food concessions stands where children had mostly gathered to eat while their parents buy ammunition or weapons or even both.

There were even some people who would just gander at the new gadgets at the electronic section. Finally, almost every one who has bought here had also bought some body armor before leaving.

Izumi first surrendered her hand bag to the check in counter after she had brought out her violet leather purse. She had immediately followed the brunet who had carried nothing except his wallet.

The two duelists had picked two carts before heading to the ammunition section. Once there, Takuya had picked out two boxes of auto cannon high density rounds and put them in his cart.

Izumi did the same with two boxes of machine gun rounds, careful to also choose the high-density type.

The brunet then neared the spider mine section of the aisle which is almost at the end furthest to the door.

They then walked to the electronic section to see what new gadget would be useful for the remainder of the trip. The only thing of interest in that section was the improved targeting computers which were on sale - 4,000 dollars with any targeting computer trade in.

The pair then walked on to the body armor section. Takuya had bought an improved body armor for himself and is about to buy a second one for his partner. He had changed his mind when Izumi had purchased a blended improved body armor that fits her hour glass figure perfectly.

After finishing with that section, they had gone to see the weapon's section which was just past the body armor section. The couple had settled to just window shop as they still did not need any replacement weapons yet and also because some were too expensive for their meager budgets.

At one point, Izumi had to drag her brunet friend away from the weapons placed on display. Takuya was looking longingly at a new twin laser that was advertised to have about one and a half times the power of a similar weapon but with half the power consumption.

Takuya had even waved bye-bye at the gleaming weapon on display as Izumi had continued to tug him by his collar to the next section; both of them ignoring the strange stares and giggles by the people that they had passed by.

-oOo-

The Red Tag section is where all overstocked and discontinued items are for sale. Occasionally the purchasing department of Uncle Al's buys something by mistake. To compensate, the store had sold their items in this section of the building at discounted prices.

Therefore, all items found there, either did not work or were potentially dangerous. Also all items there were sold on "as is" basis. The stuff that did work, however, is a real bargain. Out of all items on display, only four items that looks promising and affordable to Izumi and Takuya.

The first item was the Flinger. On the display card it was written - The Flinger is similar to an ejection seat except that instead of firing the seat into the air, the flinging mechanism opens the door and dumps whoever is sitting into the road. It costs 500 dollars plus an extra 100 dollars for installation.

Takuya had bought one of these as it would be very useful in a wooded area or in a cave where being ejected into the air is just as dangerous as staying in the vehicle.

The next items were spider mines – these were considered as overstocked items in their red price card. It costs 250 dollars per mine. Izumi had bought twenty of these as they have proven to be useful against chasing enemies.

Third on the list were "Little Pete" Vertically-Launched Heavy Rockets – these rockets are not guided and just go straight up and hit whatever is above them.

It is only considered as cheap defense against helicopters, but not much use against other vehicles since the said weapons could only be launched vertically. It also comes with an easy to install platform for quick launches. It costs 250 dollars for each rocket.

The two duelists had a fight in buying this one since Izumi had wanted to buy it in case they have to go up against a helicopter and Takuya had argued that the auto cannon is powerful enough for the task of bringing a chopper down.

They did buy two of these when Izumi had resorted to her puppy dog eyes attack to change Takuya's stubborn mind.

And lastly, the section has voice-activated switches – these switches allow either the driver or the gunner to issue voice commands that would trigger the vehicle's weapons.

The van already has three of these for all its weapons but Izumi had need three more for the gunner's use when the driver is too busy to use any weapons. Each switch cost 150 dollars each. Thus, she had bought six of them as she may need it on the car she would later buy.

After they had bought all the items, the two had headed for the check out counter with some of the items in their carts with a list of other purchases. They had also given their auto bank cards along with Gennai's to process their orders.

When they had paid their orders, Takuya was asked by the clerk to take the van into one of the installation bays so that the Flinger and the voice activated switches could be installed.

The brunet duelist then asked how long the installation would be as he had noticed that it is about a quarter to three in the afternoon now.

The clerk had answered that it would be done within fifteen minutes. Takuya had thanked her and brought the van into an empty bay and joined Izumi in the lounge.

-oOo-

The lounge itself was as aesthetic as one could get without any taste-garish plastic colored furniture, potted palms and lurid autoduel art on the wall. There were also two vending machines for snacks and soft drinks near the door.

Two NANS tickers were placed at the opposite side of the lounge chairs and just beside the permaglass windows.

Lastly, a row of slot machines have occupied the remaining wall. There was a lot of talk about the Deseret Disaster, with duelists expressing their opinions about what happened and why and whether Gennai was still alive.

Both Takuya and Izumi had wisely stayed out of their conversation and just talked about other things. Before long, they were paged on the public address system to pick up their van.

They then loaded all the weapons with their appropriate ammunition and headed out towards the house where Gennai is staying.

-oOo-

Once again, the blue Honda Civic was after them. This time, the couple had tried to lose him in the back streets but were themselves caught in a cul-de-sac. The two male occupants of the chasing car had just alighted the Civic and were now approaching the van with deliberate slowness.

With a nod at each other, both Takuya and Izumi had exited the van with their hand guns (both had Desert Eagles kept in their hip holsters) drawn and shot both thugs. The two thugs were so surprised at the sudden attack that they had hesitated to draw their own weapons.

After being shot twice – once in the thigh and then in the stomach, both thugs had gone down to the hot asphalt.

A minute later, a passing patrol car had seen them, and after some explanation by Izumi, the cops had arrested the two thugs after a through body search and car search. Takuya was told to follow them to the police station.

In the police station, the police clerk had credited 2,000 dollars to both their auto bank accounts.

"What was that for?" asked Takuya, surprised at the sudden increase to his personal wealth.

"That is reward money for taking down Joe Ferguson and his partner, Lyle Jones. They have been on the run from the law since their violent robbery at a bank in Los Angeles." explained the clerk as he led them out the door of the police station. "Thank you for helping us capture them."

-oOo-

Takuya had driven back to where they left Gennai. Izumi was guiding him with the makeshift map he made before they left. Once the van arrived at their destination - a stucco white bungalow inside a wealthy subdivision in Western Reno,both duelists were met by Gennai who was tightly clutching four paper sheets in his gloved right hand.

His friend had gone to Izumi's gunner side window and said that Gennai had read a threatening message that he was to be dropped off in Reno or face the consequences.

Gennai had followed his friend and shook his hand. He then boarded the van as Takuya slowly made a U-turn to find their way back to the highway on their way out of Reno.

* * *

I'm sorry for ending the chapter on such a bad note. It would get better in the next chapter, I promise. On our next chapter, the gang goes through the California Cascade Range. So expect landslides, auto duels, and two surprise cameos from a relatively unknown anime in the near horizon.

Oh yeah, the second comment on the Reno police traffic department is actually true.

Here is a sneak peak of what I mean:

* * *

A quarter of a mile down the road, Izumi had finally realized what the road reports (and Takuya's instincts) were talking about. Five wrecked cars were seen just beyond the cliff on the left side of the highway along with some of the broken boulders that caused them to swerve of the highway in the first place.

* * *

Well that's it. I'll be seeing you guys in the next chapter scheduled for next week. For now, let me wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


	4. Things could only go uphill from here

Hi, everyone. We are now in the fourth chapter of Badlands Run. It is in this chapter that we will see how much the Deseret First people want to get rid of Gennai Whitney simply because he is a serious threat to their own plans for the said autonomous country.

I would like to thank my two reviewers for giving me their opinions about this story. I hope you both enjoy this chapter as well.

Disclaimer: I also do not own Honda Motorcycles, Bank of America or Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure. On the off-chance that I do own them, I'll be just be too busy to write this fan fiction anyway.

So enjoy this chapter while I prepare the last chapter for its posting that is scheduled for next week.

* * *

**"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."** - Seneca, Roman dramatist

Chapter 4 – **Things Could Only Go Uphill From Here**

Interstate 80, near California-Nevada border – 4:30 PM, Saturday

After all the excitement in Reno, the occupants of the Security Six van were more than eager to get out of the hustle and bustle of city life. The van was now traveling in the I-80 deep in the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Sometimes, the van's engines had strained a bit at the steep climb in some parts of the highway but overall, Takuya and the others were making good time.

Eventually, they had seen this sign on the left side of the road:

* * *

WELCOME TO CALIFORNIA

GOOD BYE NEVADA

Truckee 15

Sacramento 120

Vallejo 178

San Francisco 219

This sign is sponsored by

HERLITZ AND SONS – Armourers to Kings and Aces

Visit our factory outlet in San Francisco

* * *

This was followed by another sign:

* * *

NO DUELLING PERMITTED IN THIS AREA

This area is patrolled by California Highway Police.

* * *

The blue van had continued its journey deeper into the lush surroundings of the Sierra Madre Mountains. The van's occupants had enjoyed the relative peace and quiet of this part of the route as they had also relished the cool and fragrant mountain air flowing through their opened windows.

As a result, a third sign had almost passed their notice:

* * *

NOW ENTERING PACIFIC TIME ZONE

* * *

"Damn, I forgot that we change time zones at this part of the route. Now its 5:45 PM, not much time to reach the deadline." cursed Takuya, mentally slapping himself for his slight oversight in the schedule.

"Please do not worry about it, Takuya. It doesn't matter if we did not reach the hotel by midnight. All that matters now is that I'm safe from harm," said Gennai as he had placed his hand on the brunet's right shoulder while leaning on the front seat.

"I don't get it, Gennai. Why the sudden change of heart?" said Izumi, scratching her head.

"Read these aloud so you would understand," Gennai said as he had handed the folded paper sheets to the young woman along with the latest NANS tickers.

The first written sheet had gone as follows:

* * *

AADA Message Service 1015 MST 081537 SANFRA RENO Message sent 0440 MST 081537 Message follows:

Please tell Brother Gennai Whitney that we were glad to hear that rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated. We are praying for your safe arrival in San Francisco

/S/ Allen S. Whitfield

Stake President

San Francisco California Stake

Message ends

* * *

"Ok, I still don't follow on why this would change your mind, Gennai. It seems fine to me," Izumi said as she had scratched her head in confusion once again.

"Read the second message then the print out of the NANS ticker," answered Gennai testily before looking out the window.

The second message had gone like this:

* * *

AADA message service 1216 MST 081537 RENO RENO Message sent 1010 MST 081537 Message follows:

We know who you are and who your precious cargo is. We advise you to drop your cargo in Reno. If you proceed to San Francisco, you may run into trouble that you have not anticipated.

/S/ (No Signature)

Message ends

* * *

When Izumi had read the NANS articles aloud, the trio's worst fears were realized. The Deseret disaster stories was also changed to include the new facts that were discovered within hours after the explosion. Three dead bodies were found in the crime scene and Gennai was not among them.

Moreover, there were more reported threats against the LDS apostle from people who want him out of politics permanently. But what had caught their full attention and nearly had made Takuya release the steering wheel in surprise was this:

A story from north central Nevada, about a service station attendant who have claimed she had seen Gennai in a blue GMC Savanna Passenger van on the morning **after **the disaster, heading west on Interstate 80.

"I guess that changes things for all three of us, huh?" Takuya had spoken for the first time since Reno as all three had sighed in unison.

"This is great, this is just great. Any one fer painting this van fluorescent green with GENNAI WHITNEY IS IN THIS VAN written on its sides in shocking pink?" he added sarcastically.

"Shut up, Takuya. You're the one who said that even if we were found out, we can still continue our journey." Izumi said as she had crumpled the ticker copy into a paper ball and threw it out the window.

Takuya had simply grunted in response and kept his eyes on the road ahead, not bothering to yell at his gunner.

After a minute, they saw yet another official looking sign:

* * *

TRUCKEE

EXIT 1 MILE

ALL VEHICLES MUST STOP

STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

INSPECTION STATION

* * *

Just ahead, the road had detoured through a large set of steel gates. Beyond the gates lied a building that looked similar to customs buildings that Takuya had been though in his trips in Canada and Texas.

The big difference was that this one is tasked with keeping diseased fruits and vegetables out of California so they would not infect the fruit orchards scattered in the whole state.

Takuya then remembered the big box of pears that was hidden in the cargo area. Sweat ran down his cheeks in rivulets as he had imagined any of the pears being infected by fire blight and then confiscated when proven to be diseased. Still, they could not hide the fact that they exist now.

As he had driven up to the window where a bored man in a brown uniform was looking at them, the man asked "Good afternoon, travelers. Do you have any fresh fruits or vegetables with you today?"

"Yes, they're at the cargo area in the back." Takuya answered quickly to his gunner's surprise. Izumi did not know nor did she even ask about the contents of the dirty wooden crate hidden in the cargo area where her luggage were also kept.

The heavily built man had asked if he could see them. Takuya had left his seat and led the inspector to the cargo area and showed him the pears.

The inspector had made a note on his clipboard then said:

"Your pears are in very good shape. I wish I could have kept one of them though," The inspector added as he had headed for his table and pulled out a facsimile of a map.

"Still thank you very much for your cooperation." He had handed Takuya the facsimiled map of California and waved them though.

-oOo-

As they returned to the strangely empty highways, the trio were awed by the beautiful scenery before them. Bushes, light brown buttes, and badlands were replaced by pine trees, green mountains and valleys.

Even if the temperature outside was supposed to be in the high seventies, the fact that they were high up in the mountains made it seem that it was just in the mid-sixties.

Everyone had their windows opened to let the cool breezes in. The smell of pine cones tickled Takuya's nose while Izumi said her nose smelled the fragrance of strawberries and oranges from orchards just above them.

Takuya then gasped as he just had a bad feeling about the route ahead. He had told the others to hold on tight to their seats.

"What for, Takuya? You're not going to speed up just because we're an hour late, are you?" asked Izumi, her brows raised in alarm.

"No, but I think we might be in for a nasty surprise a little further down the highway."

"Takuya's got a point. The road reports tell of some mysterious landslides in this very area. What's more, nobody seems to know where they come from or who are the culprits behind it (if any)." said Gennai in serious tone.

Izumi then borrowed the AADA road guide for this route from Gennai. What she read was:

* * *

AADA Road Report 1200 MST 081637 RenoSanFra

AADA advisory for Interstate 80, Reno to San Francisco

issued 8/16/37 at 1200 Mountain Standard Time

I-80 is in fair condition from Reno to Sacramento, then in

good condition to San Francisco except as noted below:

Travelers should use caution on I-80 in the Emigrant Gap area.

Landslides of suspicious origins have been reported just west

of the Emigrant Gap exit on both sides of the highway. Both AADA

and California Highway Patrol is investigating the matter.

Travelers are advised to watch for rolling boulders for ten miles

on either side of Emigrant Gap.

Today is "Gang Day" in Vallejo. Portions of I-80 will be reserved for gang related

activity. AADA strongly advises not to take the I-80 from Sacramento to San

Francisco and instead recommends taking the I-5 from Sacramento to Stockton,

then I-580 from Stockton to San Francisco. Drivers taking I-80 through Vallejo will

have to do so at their own risk. Insurance companies will not cover injuries sustained as

a result of "Gang Day."

Weather report courtesy of NANS: Fair and partly cloudy today with highs

in the upper 70s in the mountains, low 70s from Sacramento to San Francisco.

Next scheduled update 1400 Mountain Standard Time

AADA SANFRA 081637 1200 SMR84520 CC231S 12-10-33 G

* * *

A quarter of a mile down the road, Izumi had finally realized what the road reports (and Takuya's instincts) were talking about.

Five wrecked cars were seen just beyond the cliff on the left side of the highway along with some of the broken boulders that caused them to swerve off the highway in the first place.

There were also some smaller boulders on the cliff face on the right side that were broken on impact. The pavement itself was scarred by the numerous boulders that hit it on their way down.

A rather ominous rumble was heard by all three occupants of the van as a huge boulder was rolling down the hill on a collision course with the Security Six. Takuya immediately swerved to the right as the boulder hit an jutting ledge a few meters above the road and flew over the van.

The large rock had hit the pavement near the road's edge with a large cracking sound before bouncing to the gully below. Takuya felt the steering wheel shudder as the whole pavement shook with the powerful impact.

Izumi and Gennai had also felt the van shaking slightly as it were caught in the middle of an intensity two earthquake.

But their happiness was short-lived as another boulder followed its bigger sibling on its path down the mountain's barren slope. This time, Takuya had just evaded it by mere inches.

The van had stopped on the side as Takuya had exited and inspected it for possible damage.

The boulder itself had disappeared in the same way as its predecessor. As the brunet duelist was returning to his seat, he had seen two male figures that seemed to double up in laughter on top of the cliff.

'Those mother-fucking assholes. How dare they roll those boulders on innocent wayfarers like us then laugh at it? I'm going to kick their asses straight to Los Angeles,' The brunet duelist had thought acidly as he had stepped on the accelerator and shifted to first gear.

-oOo-

Takuya had later seen a dirt road leading away from the highway. It looked like it would lead to the cliff that the brunet saw earlier. He had turned the van around, ignoring the surprised then angry cries of his companions as he had made his way up the dirt road.

He had explained that he saw two people on the top of this very cliff and they may be the ones who rolled the boulders that they dodged minutes earlier.

All of them had gritted their teeth as the van bounced up and down on the road's uneven and rocky surface. Actually, this road was more like two ruts separated by a rock median than an actual dirt road.

"At least, a dirt road is more paved than this rocky path. " Izumi said as her head had bounded around in every direction making her a little dizzy. Takuya still coaxed the van up the mountain side as he had refused to give up the chase.

When they had arrived at the cliff itself, all three had gotten off the van and looked for the two mysterious men. What they found were just more dirt and rocks.

There were no signs of footprints or tire tracks in the rocky ridge. They knew boulders do not just fall down a mountain by themselves, but they had no means to prove otherwise.

The LDS apostle had pointed to some paths and caves that led from the cliff but they were just too numerous to investigate and they do not have much time to investigate them in the first place either.

On their way back down to the main road, everyone had noticed a column of black smoke in the west horizon, an obvious sign that something was burning. They ignored it for now as they were too far away to do anything about it at the moment.

-oOo-

As they returned to the highway, traffic had picked up. They had passed a line of long-haul trucks, a cycle gang with a winged H symbol stenciled on their sides, and the 18-wheeler truck of the Karakuchi Industries Autodueling Team. They had done this with ease since there is very light traffic on their side of the interstate.

One of the passengers in the truck's black cab– Koji Karakuchi had even greeted them on the radio. Gennai had lowered his head to the van's floor boards in the hopes that Koji would not see and recognize him. He had already met the young owner of Karakuchi Industries in a charity ball in Washington about two years prior to this day.

The owner of Karakuchi Industries had even asked about Junpei's whereabouts as he had noticed the absence of the other half of the Last Frontier Courier Service in the Security Six.

Upon knowing his near death by food poisoning, the concerned multi-millionaire had asked the hospital's address as he would visit the portly redhead in his hospital bed along with the rest of his team.

"Thank you, Mr. Karakuchi. Junpei would love ta see you guys' again," said Takuya happily.

"So do we. And call me, Koji as you don't have to be formal with me. You got me out of a jam and for that I am very grateful. Thanks to you guys, the party was a complete success. We even had a newly engaged couple on our hands a few days after the celebrations."

"Wait a minute. Y' mean, Ikki asked his childhood friend - Arika Amizake to marry him after that victory party where Takuya and Junpei brought the sound equipment for." Izumi asked as she had grabbed the mike from an annoyed Takuya.

The brunet had glared at her for a second before turning his attention to the road ahead.

"Yes, and who is this? I don't remember Takuya and Junpei havin' a girl assist them in their courier business before," asked the confused owner of Karakuchi Industries.

"Oh forgive my rudeness, Mr. Karakuchi. My name is Izumi Orimoto. Takuya and I had met in Las Vegas last year and I'm joining him on his way to San Francisco since I had business to attend to at my bank's branch there."

"I see and you must be quite a friend of Takuya to know that little tidbit. Neither Takuya nor Junpei had stayed long in the party, by the way. So even if the press had heard about the victory party, we did not even tell them of their presence there. Not that we need to, anyway." Koji explained.

Takuya had snatched the mike back from the young woman's clutches. "Yeah well, I told her about my delivery to your party about three hours ago. Still, I didn't even know that Ikki would propose to her that soon. I mean, prior to their shared adventure just before the Atlanta Classic, they had rarely even met at all."

"He told you his whole life story, didn't he?" Koji's tone had indicated his amusement at the sudden turn of events.

"Yeah, he was quite envious of your cuddling with Karin so he went out for a bit of fresh air and found me near the doorway. To pass the time, we kind of exchanged stories about our own adventures and misadventures."

"Alright, Takuya. I'll ask him about how you met your girlfriend who's with you right now since we're losing your signal badly. Good bye and have a safe trip."

"Yeah, Thanks and the same goes fer you too." Takuya had just released the mike button when he remembered something. "Wait a minute. Izumi is just a good friend of mine. She's not my girlfriend…at least not yet."

The last part was said in a near whisper as the brunet had looked to his left for a moment to hide his reddening cheeks. He had released the talk button before slamming the mike back in its receiver.

Takuya then set his sights on the road; his face now a hard mask as he had wanted to throttle Koji for his last remark, multi-millionaire or no.

Luckily for him, Izumi did not berate him for what had been said on the airwaves. Instead she had looked at the rock face on the right as if she had found something of interest there. In truth, she was also hiding her reddened cheeks from the van's driver.

Also luckily for them, the older man was still looking at the floorboards thus he did not see their expressions although he had to laugh at what he had expected their reactions to be.

About three minutes and five miles down the mountain road, they again saw the column of smoke they had seen earlier. This time, it had grown considerably larger. From their vantage point, it was clear that the fire is somewhere to their right and not far from the interstate itself.

Seeing an nearby freeway exit, Takuya had told his companions that they will have to investigate the fire since it has not diminished but was even growing larger with every passing minute.

The others had agreed and they took the frontage road before doubling back to a road that seems to lead in the direction of the growing fire.

-oOo-

As the van roared up the old blacktop road, Izumi had finally figured out the source of the smoke – a small log shack down the road was burning. As they neared the fire, Takuya had jumped out of his seat and ran to the van's rear. Moments later, he was carrying a portable fire extinguisher with both hands.

"There's one more extinguisher in the back!" the courier had yelled as he ran towards the shack at full speed. The shack's aluminum roof had already fallen in and the wooden walls seemed to crackle and snap as they were slowly consumed by the flames.

Takuya had skidded to a stop a few feet of the house as he had almost tripped on something. That something was a black-haired spectacled man who seemed to be in his early to mid forties. The man was yelling at them (specifically at the confused brunet) to ignore the house and help him out.

The man's leg was pinned by a support timber that had fallen from the burning front wall while he was escaping the burning shack, ten minutes earlier.

Naturally, Takuya did the first thing that came to his mind – he had tried to pull the man out of the log after he had placed the fire extinguisher that he held on the ground.

"Yeow!" the man yelled.

"What the heck are ya doin', ya dumb hick?" the older man said as he had clutched his painful leg. "Are ya trying to break my leg, huh? If not, just move the damn log before you do manage ta break it."

"I need a hand 'ere," Takuya had frantically shouted to the others who were vainly fighting the fire.

"I'm on my way, Takuya." Izumi replied as she had gone to the farther end of the log and lifted it. She had already given her fire extinguisher to Gennai before running towards Takuya's location.

Takuya did the same on the his end since it was much heavier than Izumi's. Gennai (who had also set down both extinguishers on the ground) then gently pulled the man by the shoulders onto level ground, meters away from the now completely destroyed shack.

The blonde duelist had bandaged the injured man's leg while the brunet took a rolled up blanket from the van's cargo area and spread it behind the man's back to make him comfortable.

"Thanks, kids. Help me up, will ya?" the man said as he had tried to stand up. His gloved hands had clutched both duelists shoulders as he had regained the ability to stand. "Ken Sanada's the name, making new gadgets for the good of humanity's my game. I was about to cook some ramen noodles for supper when that damn stove just blew up on me."

The man had looked back wistfully at the smoldering remains of his former home. "Now, I got nothin'. I hope Mitsuki wouldn't mind her old man staying at her place for a while."

"Hey old man, how about you come with us? We'll take you to the nearest doctor," Izumi said as she had carried the first aid kit back to the van.

"Ah, it's just a little leg wound, nothin' to worry about. Besides, I know the doctors here well enough ta know that they can't even fix a child's sprained arm let alone my leg." Ken replied as he had hobbled to a nearby mass of shrubs. "What I **need** is a minute to talk to my 'best friend' about the 'wonderful stove' he sold me, that bald headed two-faced weasel."

Ken had pulled out an old Honda CBR600RR motorcycle from the bushes and drove off, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. Takuya had shrugged his shoulders and headed back to the van.

Both Izumi and Gennai had followed suit. All three had picked up the blanket and the two spent fire extinguishers before returning to the van.

-oOo-

Before they reached the freeway exit, the van had stopped at a charging station/general store for a quick charge. Takuya and the others had also taken the opportunity to wash the black soot off their faces and arms.

As they approached the aging building, they had seen an old balding man with a brown mustache sitting comfortably in a rocking chair just outside the door.

"Good evening, kind sir." Izumi said. "Can you tell us –?" She never got to finish when the bald man had replied smiling.

"Gents – second door on the right. Ladies – first door on the left."

When they finished cleaning up their faces and freshening up, Gennai had ordered three soft drinks and three algae burgers as well as ask for a charge for the Security Six.

As they waited for the van to be fully charged, the group had talked to the bald man about what had happened at Sanada's place and their own trip to San Francisco (careful not to leave hints about the real reason why), while eating their snacks.

"I already told Ken to buy a transformer after he had bought that stove since that thing is set on 120 Volts not 220 Volts but he said that he can get around it. Served him right, the ol' fart." He chuckled softly before continuing. "Please don't misunderstand my reaction. He's actually my best friend – when he's not being pig-headed, that is."

"So that's what happened. That really sucks for Mr. Sanada even if it's his fault," said Takuya, as he had thought about what really caused the fire they had seen earlier.

"Yeah, and that's why you should read the electrical specifications before plugging something in." chimed Izumi as she had tapped the brunet's right shoulder from behind.

"That's not funny, Izumi. Junpei and I are always careful around electrical appliances. He's proven himself to be quite the electrician, you know." Takuya said as he had whirled on her.

"Would you please stop squabbling like a married couple since we need to get to Sacramento before seven in the evening, hmm?" Gennai interrupted as he was walking back to the van.

"Sorry, Gennai." The couple said as they had turned towards the door.

"Good bye. Mr…" Takuya started stupidly at the owner of the establishment as he was about to exit the store.

"It's Hiroshi Rara," replied the man

"Also known as Mr. Clean since he's got no hair even though he doesn't take a bath for days," came a loud voice from outside the door.

"Oh yeah, you should talk. Your 'house' is a real pigsty," Hiroshi retorted at Ken Sanada who was leaning on the door frame. The sight of the lanky eccentric scientist's profile in the doorway startled the two duelists as they had stood in between the quarreling old men.

"Better a pigsty where good products are invented than a clean store that only sells only bad ones."

"Why you?" Hiroshi said with both tanned hands had balled into fists. "It was your fault that your house burned down not mine. I already told ya about the differences in the voltage."

"Oh yeah! Well, I plugged it in a transformer of my own design first instead of plugging it straight to the electrical outlet. That means your stove was already defective before I even bought it."

"Oh really, since when does any invention of yours ever work anyway?" Hiroshi had retorted with a smirk.

"That's it. You're goin' down, baldy."

"Bring it on, Four Eyes."

Izumi had stepped in between the old men, intent of stopping the fist fight from even starting. She had explained that she could ask the Bank of America's branch manager in San Francisco to offer a residential loan of up to twenty five thousand dollars to Ken, the loan itself being payable in five years.

It would be a snap for her since she had already known the branch manager there personally even before her recent promotion to the same position.

The interest of the loan was low enough for Sanada to pay with the royalties that he had collected from his successful inventions. Coincidentally, Ken had also made an account in the same branch that Izumi was talking about.

Takuya was awed by the way Izumi had handled the situation. It was only when Hiroshi had tapped his left shoulder and remarked to close his mouth before a fly entered it that he had realized something.

His mouth was locked in stall mode the whole time the girl was speaking. His face had suddenly felt warm when the old men had flashed similar crazy grins at each other and Izumi seemed to hide her own blush with her dainty gloved hands.

To protect themselves from even more teasing, Takuya had grabbed the young woman's hand as they had said their goodbyes and headed for the van where the LDS apostle was waiting for them. The van had powered up and reversed back into the road on its way to the interstate.

Back at the general store, the two old men were now sitting down on the lounge chairs in front of the store and drinking Heineken beer in their trademark green bottles.

"Those two kids remind me a lot of Mitsuki and Kazuki," remarked Sanada as he had chugged down his beer. "What 'bout you, Hiroshi?"

"Same as you, Ken. I'm sure he'll have the guts to say his feelings to her face someday." answered Rara as he did the same. "I mean, Kazuki did with Mitsuki and look what happened to 'em. They got married and now they're now expecting a kid. Your first grandson, I believe."

"Yeah, and I'm just as anxious as they are for his birth in October." Ken replied as he had looked at the setting sun in the slowly darkening horizon.

-oOo-

Interstate 80 – section past Auburn exit en route to Sacramento, - 6:30 PM

The Security Six had just entered the highway through the Auburn tollbooth when a battered white Volvo V70 (Conestoga) overtook it while a green Chevrolet Malibu Maxx (Dragon) closed in from the rear.

The lead car's rear oil jet had squirted an oil slick on the pavement and had even fired its turreted laser a few times. The Dragon had also began its assault about the same time as the Conestoga did. Its machine guns had made a lot of hits in the van's rear door.

Izumi had retaliated by aiming the machine guns at the Conestoga's oil jet, while trying her best to keep the van from swerving due to the sudden loss in traction. A few high density rounds did damage the rear weapon enough to disable it completely.

Still, most of the van's laser proof front grille was damaged and one of the headlights destroyed by direct hits made by the laser.

Meanwhile, Takuya was having a ball since the Dragon had managed to hit all the spider mines that was dropped as the latter car had tried to keep itself on the road with some coaxing from the auto cannon.

The car had later crashed at the mountain side, a complete wreck. The vehicle itself was totaled by the mines as well as the auto cannon rounds that had managed to hit its hood and the power plant beneath it.

As soon as the Dragon was out of the fight, the Volvo was crippled by a combined assault of auto cannon and machine gun fire.

Eventually, it too had crashed into the rock wall ahead. The van had stopped quickly just behind the wrecked Conestoga. Takuya then headed for the Dragon, armed with his assault rifle while Izumi headed to the front of the Conestoga, also armed with her weapon of choice.

Gennai had moved to the gunner seat to call the local authorities on the long distance radio to arrest the drivers of the disabled cars.

The brunet had found that the driver of the Dragon was unconsciously leaning on the steering wheel, a stream of blood flowing from the covered part of his head. Takuya then pushed him back to his seat. His army cap was worn in such a way that nobody could see his hair.

Furthermore, his blue military uniform was raised high enough to cover the lower part of his face. The only thing he did find on his pockets was a wallet.

The name on his driver's license (later proved to be a fake) is Amir Rameses Jr. Another calling card jammed in the man's wallet had showed that Amir was a member of the Big League Unlimited Dueling (BLUD). This organization was known for its members doing unsportsmanlike conduct to win at AADA events and was blackballed from further events.

After searching the car, he had found a picture of Gennai. Takuya had returned to the van with the picture, now convinced that Deseret First was very serious in its elimination of Gennai from the coming conference.

Izumi was waiting for him near the van's driver side door. She had reported that the Conestoga's female driver is also unconscious and that she had found three items – a picture of Gennai, a written description of the van, and a meal receipt from a place in Sacramento called Harvey's.

On it was scrawled in someone's messy writing – "Meet Jake here tonight." Her name based on the examined driver's license was Arachne Onnasis.

Takuya had returned the meal receipt to Izumi who had kept it in her purse. Minutes later, a police car and a tow truck (both vehicles are under the authority of the California Highway Patrol) had arrived. After the standard questioning, the three were released and the van continued on its way to Sacramento.

-oOo-

Sacramento, California – 7:30 PM

The Security Six had finally arrived in Sacramento, a half-hour late of Gennai's instructions. Still he did not mind it much as he was more worried of the threats on his life by his enemies back in Deseret.

The van was first taken to a garage in the middle of town. The three travelers then split up. Takuya had by then concocted a plan to expose the mysterious "Jake" to the authorities.

He had Gennai eat at the plush restaurant named der Shwartzwald in the Capitol Area while he and Izumi pose as the drivers who they had defeated earlier and meet Jake at Harvey's.

The two had walked to Capitol Street where Harvey's is located. As they entered the restaurant, they had seen the stills from the antique movie "Harvey" elegantly placed in every wall of the restaurant. Also the smell of fresh rabbit meat had filled the air.

"Oh yeah, Harvey's raise their own rabbits then later serve them as delicious appetizers and main courses." Izumi said as the couple were led to a table placed on the left wall by a kind waiter.

"Kinda ironic for this restaurant to be named from a fictional rabbit." said Takuya as they had giv en their orders.

"Try invisible or imaginary rabbit not just fictional, 'Taki." replied the blonde with a smirk.

"Ooh, so now we'll be calling each other by nicknames then. Am I right, 'Zumi?"

"Yup, so let's cut to the chase. I know ya wanted to date me since we left Reno, Takuya." Izumi said as she had stared at him sharply as she had put her elbows on the table and cradled her head on her gloved hands.

"Yeah, it's just that I don't know if you would even like me." He said then sighed despondently. "I mean, you're a bank manager while I'm just a courier driver."

"That's true, Takuya but you're also quite rich judging from the deposits you and Junpei had made at your shared account in some of Bank of America's branches. I'll bet you have a mansion somewhere in the West Coast."

"Ha ha. Actually, I don't have a mansion. What I do own is a light blue bungalow house with a large yard in Seattle, Washington. Right now, my younger brother is the one staying in it since this job takes me from Montreal to Mexico City."

"Seattle, huh? I always wanted to live there," said Izumi as she had thought about the stories her co-workers give her about their annual trips there. The cool and sometimes wet summers, the sound of the waves crashing on the breakwaters, the breezes that carry the scent of brine and pine trees, and smell of freshly brewed coffee from various Starbucks branches there.

"Earth to Izumi, our orders has just arrived." drawled Takuya as he had shook his head in resigned disgust.

As the young woman had snapped out of her daydream, she saw that the Brunswick stews they had ordered were now placed on the table along with their iced tea.

"Sorry, Takuya. I must 'ave been daydreaming or something."

"That's alright. Let's just eat coz I'm starving."

The couple had eaten their meal with gusto as they chatted about themselves. Soon, they had finished their dinner and Takuya had called a waiter for their receipt. When one of the waiters had arrived with the receipt, Izumi had asked him if Jake was here.

While she spoke to the waiter, Takuya had paid for their meals.

A minute later, a second waiter arrived. His blond hair was slicked with globs of cheap hair gel.

"So how did it go?" Jake asked, his body language betraying his eagerness in getting a possible bonus for a successful side job.

"The van crashed into the ravine. No survivors, no witnesses, therefore no worries for us." answered Izumi in a cold and calculated tone.

"Alright, we'll meet at the back as soon as I end my shift in two hours time. I'll hand over your payment by then." He started to leave when he had suddenly turned around.

"Oh yeah, so how's about a night on the town, toots? We'll paint the whole town red," he asked a blushing Izumi.

"Sorry, maybe another time. I'm going to my hotel room and sleep until tomorrow afternoon," The female duelist lied as she had flashed the waiter with a fake smile.

"Alright, it's your loss." Jake snidely replied as he had left to take another order.

"Well, see you around." waved Takuya, grinning from ear to ear.

"Good bye," said Izumi as she too had waved him off.

As soon as Jake disappeared in the door leading to the kitchen, Izumi had angrily tugged a surprised Takuya with an iron grip on his armor's collar until they had reached a lamp post at the end of the block.

"Ok, wise guy. What's with the Cheshire grin? Are ya jealous or just likes to see me squirm?"

Takuya was about to answer both but had second thoughts about saying it especially since he did not want to return to the van with a black eye and a few bruises to go with it. He had answered the first one just to be safe.

"Good. I don't even like that guy. He's too greasy for a city girl like me."

Takuya had to turn around to hide his laughter. In doing so, he had spied a telephone booth adjacent to the wall of the warehouse building nearby. He had pointed this to his partner before heading in its general direction.

Takuya had called the Sacramento police about Jake who probably has a connection with the Deseret airship bombing. Izumi had also added when and where they could arrest him.

After finishing the call, both duelists had returned to the garage in high spirits as they had just given Deseret First its second comeuppance (the first one was in Reno).

The two duelists were so happy that the plan had worked so well that they did not even notice they were holding each other's hand as they had walked back to the garage.

When they had arrived in the repair bay, Gennai was already there waiting for them. The LDS apostle had asked them how did their dinner go and they said that it went very well.

After they have entered the van and buckled up, Izumi then recounted what had happened at Harvey's.

Takuya had taken the wheel this time as they headed west on Interstate 80.

* * *

Well, that's that for Chapter Four. The drivers of the cars that ambushed the Security Six are actually two of the digimon enemies from Digimon 02 in human guise, Arukemimon(Arachnemon) and Mummymon to be exact.

I just hope I got the descriptions of Mummymon's human form correct. In case I didn't, please tell me so I can try again.

The two crazy old men are from the anime series - Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure and they play scientists as well as military commanders in that mecha anime. As for the couple that they were talking about, they are actually the two lead characters of Dual - Kazuki Yotsuga and Mitsuki Sanada.

On our last chapter, our heroes meet two teenage adventurers who will join them in the last leg of their journey. Still, we cannot count the bad guys out yet since they themselves have an ace hidden up their own sleeves as well. Here is the final preview of this story:

* * *

As the convoy had gotten on the bridge itself, Sayako had heard a strange whirling sound; she had gotten on the radio to warn the others just in time before a Bell 47J helicopter (Suppressor) had raked the space between the vehicles with Vulcan machine gun fire.

* * *

I do hope you read the final chapter as this journey (and fan fiction) reaches its merry end. For now, read and enjoy this chapter and as well as the preceding ones. I also wish you an advanced Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


	5. Crossing the Rubicon

Well, here it is - the final chapter of Badlands Run.

For our heroes, this is the final leg of their journey. For the bad guys, this is the last chance to fulfill their mission. For you, this will be the end of the story. And finally, for me - my fourth Anime Car Wars fan fiction is now completed.

The next story will not come until sometime next year since I will be busy with own job in real life starting January. So I'll just read your fan fictions instead.

Once again, I do not own anything besides the story itself. Therefore, I do not own Melody of Oblivion, Ducati motorcycles, Fleximum sidecars, and Bell Industries Helicopters. Nor do I own Bay Bridge Authority that is based in San Francisco.

I also do not own the song "Freak on a Leash" by Korn.

As for the chapter title, it simply means everyone involved in the story has already committed themselves to a risky (and for Gennai, a revolutionary) course of action. Add this to the fact that they already passed the point of no return, distance-wise, at the start of this chapter.

Legend: **words in bold **- quote and song title/artist, _words in italics_ - words on road signs, -o0o- - page break

Ah, forget the mumbo-jumbo written above, just read and enjoy the story.

* * *

**"You can't go forward if you keep looking back." **- **Luke Fon Fabre, Tales of the Abyss**

Chapter 5 – **Crossing the Rubicon**

Interstate 80, west of Sacramento – 9:00 PM

Takuya had peeked at the illuminated weapon indicators on Izumi's side of the dashboard and was not surprised to see that all of them register full ammunition on all the van's weaponry.

Gennai then asked him on why they were moving in a westerly direction on the Interstate 80 rather than the taking the southern route on the Interstate 5.

"The reason why we're taking the western route through I-80 is this: I-5 is sure to be packed with travelers going to and from San Francisco," The brunet driver had paused to by pass a slow moving 16-wheeler container truck. "The AADA report did say that portions of I-80 around Vallejo proper are reserved for gang related activity and had suggested that travellers should use the I-5/I-580 route instead. Fortunately for us, I know another route toward Stockton that's sure to be less clogged with traffic."

Izumi had been studying both the road report and the map of California after the Security Six had exited Sacramento thus she was half listening to the given explanation.

After she had finished studying both items and turning the map light off, she had agreed with Takuya's route, much to the apostle's dismay. The route itself, as she had pointed out, would be longer but they could avoid the rest of the motorists who would use the I-5 route on their way to Stockton.

"I'm sorry if you're expecting a shorter route, Gennai. This one may look longer but it will actually save us an hour of travel. I can tell you now that Interstate 5 past Sacramento has the worst gridlock going south during Vallejo's annual Gang Day." Takuya had added after flashing a smile in the blonde's direction.

Takuya had gotten the van around yet another lumbering sixteen-wheeler container truck before continuing. "My dad took that route on our way to visit some relatives in Oakland and it took us 'round three hours just to arrive in my aunt's place in San Leandro, Oakland."

"I understand what you're trying to say, Takuya. It would be advantageous for us to take a longer yet faster route. But, is it actually safe?"

"We'll know when we get there, Gennai." assured Takuya, flashing the apostle with a toothy grin before returning his eyes to the road.

"That's what I was afraid of," muttered Gennai as he had leaned on the window sill nearest to him.

The Security Six had taken Exit 66 on First Street and headed south on the Rio Dixon Highway before making a left turn on West California Interstate 12 and then headed east toward the I-5. Everyone had enjoyed the cool breeze that had entered through their open windows.

The cloudy night sky had hidden what would have been beautiful view of the countryside that ranged from green hills in the horizon to the corn fields that were now being readied for harvesting, and finally the picturesque farm houses that dotted the landscape.

Now only silhouettes of trees, houses, and hills could be seen if the observer had adjusted his eyes to the darkness outside.

-oOo-

As the van was approaching the town of Rio Vista, it ran into trouble. Four local gangs who were supposed to participate in Gang Day had left the rest of the gangs in Vallejo proper since they had thought that Gang Day was "too sissified and slicked up for television". Instead, they had held their own rumble as far away from Vallejo as possible.

Unfortunately for Takuya and the others in the Security Six, part of the fun in a good rumble was preying on innocent victims that just happened to be passing by.

As the van was passing the ongoing fight between the gangs, three cars and a T-Rex reverse trike had broken off from the ensuing rat race to chase it.

Takuya had stepped on the accelerator to try and get away from the chasing vehicles. But the latter vehicles were much faster and had easily caught up to the escaping van.

The lead car then made the first shot as its driver had tried to puncture the van's fireproofed off road tires with his vehicle's front machine gun. It had resulted in a series of concrete geysers in the van's immediate wake.

To keep the chasing gang members away, Izumi had activated the Spear 1000 mine dropper. She had also manned the auto cannon as she had made four warning shots at the van's pursuers.

The trike was out of the fight quickly since it had taken the most damage from the spider mines that the other vehicles had barely managed to avoid.

The remaining three cars had also been damaged as they had bumped into each other while they evaded the ranging shots of the auto cannon as well as the spider mines left on the road ahead of them.

In the confusion, the cars in the back row did trigger some mines (they had trouble following the lead car for fear of bumping into each other again) and thus had taken more damage.

One of them had to drop out of the chase since its power plant was heavily damaged by a spider mine that had gotten through the car's already thinned armor.

The remaining two cars did not give up that easily. One of them had overtaken the Security Six and dropped a few mines of its own. The van did fell victim to a mine that damaged its tires and undercarriage. The force of the explosion had also made the van rock and swerve a bit before Takuya had gotten it back in control.

In retaliation, the brunet duelist had centered the lead car in his gun sights before dispatching it with more than half of the high density ammunition of the van's front machine guns. The said car's rear end was on fire as its mine dropper had exploded.

The car's driver had panicked and therefore lost control of the wheel. The said vehicle had gone careening into an empty plot of land, which was recently tilled for a new variant of virunella. It had ended up a burning wreck near the middle of the field as the flames had ignited the spare mines in the car's trunk.

The last car was still peppering the van with recoilless rifle high explosive squash head (HESH) rounds only to hit two mines that damaged both its front wheels.

It was later turned into a rolling fireball via a direct hit on the already damaged power plant made by an auto cannon round. The car itself had went off road on the empty field where the bright flames had consumed it completely.

The Security Six seemed to be slowly swallowed by its dark surroundings as it made its escape. Its tail lights had slowly dimmed from view as it went farther and farther away from the battle field.

All throughout the running battle, a helicopter owned by a local news station had caught all the action in its underside spotlight and the cameraman inside was currently recording the chase for live broadcast on national television.

The announcer on board had even told the viewers – "Yes, dueling fans from coast to coast. This is the mystery Savanna Passenger van where Gennai Whitney is supposed to be on board right now."

He had paused slightly before continuing the description. "For those of you who had been livin' under a rock these past few days, this is the blue GMC van that everyone and his brother in the Salt Lake City to San Francisco route are searching for since the Deseret airship bombing last night."

The chopper had tried to chase the still speeding Security Six but the latter was just too far away from them. The rotor aircraft had turned back to the station's landing pad as the chopper's power plant was now running low on juice.

-o0o-

The blue GMC van had crossed both the town as well as the Sacramento River past it. A half-hour later, it had also crossed the Mokelumne River on its way to a quaint little town named Terminous.

The said town's residents has made the most of its living in the kayak rental businesses that were set up in the town's western edge by the Little Potato Slough riverside.

Beyond Terminous is the Carlton E Forbes Freeway (I-5) exit 485. As the van was taking the toll exit, Takuya had crowed that they had reached the freeway with no traffic whatsoever.

"Uh-huh, maybe we did not get stuck in traffic but we found ourselves in a middle of some local gangs' automotive version of the Royal Rumble." answered Izumi, her green eyes flashing in anger.

"How was I supposed ta know that they would hold their personalized melee at that portion of the West California Interstate?" Takuya said in retaliation.

"Calm down, you two act like a pair of squabbling children. It's…what do you call it? old history or something to that effect," Gennai said as he had put his head onto his right fist as he tried to remember the right word for the situation.

"It's ancient history, Gennai. I think I also understand what you were trying to tell us," replied Izumi as she had covered her smile with her left hand. Her twinkling eyes still showed her mirth though.

Gennai had coughed loudly to cover his embarrassment.

"Yes, yes. I meant ancient history, Izumi. As it was said in my time, 'what's done is done.' It was still a good idea as we did pass a lot of traffic back there (pointing to the long line of vehicles - only visible by their headlights and tail lights, which were stuck in the freeway miles behind them). So no more arguments on what happened earlier, is that clear?"

"Yes, Gennai." answered the duelists in unison.

The van had left the freeway at exit 471 and looked for the nearest garage. Its three passengers had found one a few kilometers from the toll way exit along West Charter Way.

The mechanic inside had told them that the van could be repaired in an hour so they were free to roam around if they wish to do so. The repairs also came with a free recharge as part of their Gang Day promo.

While the mechanic was talking to them, a disk jockey on the local radio station had announced its 10:30 PM time check before playing **Freak On A Leash** by **Korn** featuring **Amy Lee** of **Evanescence** that was blaring in the garage's sound system.

-oOo-

The trio headed to the nearest fast food chain for a quick snack when their stomachs had made themselves heard. Each one had ordered a meal composed of algae burger, French fries and a medium soft drink.

In reality, Takuya had taken their orders while the others sat on the only vacant table at the time.

Takuya had added extra cheese to his order, while Izumi had asked for extra mayonnaise. Gennai had changed his drink to iced tea even if he had to pay a little more for the up-size in his drink.

As they ate their meal, Gennai had asked the brunet on how long it would take to get to San Francisco from here. The brown haired driver had answered that they could cross the Bay Bridge by 12:30 AM if they did not run into traffic or another duel, that is.

Izumi had sighed at the brunet's underwhelming answer and then turned her attention to the brightly lit counter.

-oOo-

As Takuya and the others were finishing their orders, a slender eighteen year old boy with short white hair had just ordered two algae-burger value meals for take out. He had paid the meal with his own auto-bank card before sitting at the empty table nearest to the counter.

His blonde haired girlfriend, wearing a pink tube top underneath a brown leather jacket, denim shorts, and boots, had also entered the fast food joint and sat beside him.

The white haired youth sighed as he said. "Are ya sure you're not feeling cold in that get up?"

The girl had only placed her head on his shoulders in response. The boy had fought the urge to look down as it would give him a perfect view of her well endowed chest.

"Of course not, Bocca." The girl lied.

"Still, you can still warm me up right now if you want to." The blonde girl then purred in his right ear.

"That's not what I meant, Sayako." Bocca answered as he had felt his brown cheeks heat up. "I meant that you could have worn the Wrangler jeans and green T-shirt I gave you on your last birthday. It's cold outside, you know?"

Sayako Tsukinomori's brown eyes had flashed for a moment before it slowly mellowed back to normal as her eyelashes had fluttered in a flirtatious manner. She then moved her right hand seductively across Bocca's chest down to his six pack abdomen, ignoring his sudden gasp.

She was sure it was a six pack since she could feel the bumps through the boy's white T-shirt underneath his own brown leather jacket. She had also arched her head upward to kiss her boyfriend's cheek, surprising him completely as he had never expected her to be that forward (in a public place no less).

"Sayako…" Bocca had warned before she had put her forefinger on his lips. Sayako had known that everyone in the restaurant was now watching them display their affections publicly.

She did not care what they think though because in her eyes- Bocca Serenade is her own knight in shining armor. They were not there when she was nearly gang raped by a group of ruffians more than three years ago.

Fortunately for her, Bocca and his friends had heard her desperate cries for help and beat up the said ruffians before leaving them to the arriving Stockton police officers.

Since then, Sayako has owed her life to her dark skinned savior. She became his shoulder to cry on whenever he had a major fight with his parents, and also his tutor whenever he needed help on a difficult trigonometric problem or when he needs a study buddy when reviewing before a major examination on any of his other subjects.

She had even cheered him on with the rest of his gang – the Warriors of Menos as he competed in inter-school shooting competitions.

What she did not know was that Bocca actually had a crush on her since he had seen her back in junior high (they were actually schoolmates since junior high school yet neither of them actually had met before that fateful day).

He had only told his female friends - Coco Ninna-Nanna and Toune Requiem the truth when they had figured out whom was he looking at through their second floor classroom window during Literature class.

Fortunately for her, the Warriors had readily accepted her as a new member of their gang. Boca had even said that her initiation to the gang was much easier than his own, a few years before.

At the moment, most of the Warriors were in San Francisco since Coco was invited for an acting seminar by her former Drama teacher. Sayako had blamed her parents for the fact that she and Bocca were too late to catch their bus ride to San Francisco, about five hours ago.

Bocca did not blame them though since it gave him the excuse to put his new gray Ducati Monster motorcycle with Fleximum side car – the Élan Vital through its paces.

The Élan Vital itself is unique since it has two lasers in the motorcycle's front (on both sides of its headlight)and a smoke screen at its rear.

The attached side car is also armed with a micro-missile launcher that can fire in three directions (front, right side, and up) on its front turret.(just above its own headlights). The turret itself is a universal type and that is why it could fire in all those directions.

As Bocca was receiving his order, his girlfriend had noticed the three people sitting in a nearby table talking about the route to San Francisco.

Sayako then tugged the white haired teen shirt's sleeve lightly and asked her boyfriend if they could convoy with the three people who had just finished eating and were now heading for the rest rooms to freshen up.

Bocca had replied that even though it was good idea, there was still a chance that their request would be turned down.

"Well then, I guess I'll ask them myself since you couldn't do it." Sayako replied as she had stood up, temporarily went out of the restaurant to take her jeans and green T-shirt from her duffel bag in the Élan Vital's baggage compartment under the side car's seat.

After taking her things, she had hurriedly gone to the girl's restroom before the blonde woman she had seen would leave the place.

-oOo-

As the blond biker had entered the restroom, Izumi herself was already on her way out.

'Excuse me, Miss…? I was hoping my boyfriend and I can join you on your way to San Francisco. Our friends are already there and it is a great idea to convoy with others and…"

Sayako had found herself babbling as she had tried her best to convince the older woman to let them join their little group for their mutual protection.

The eighteen year old girl had sighed in relief as the older woman said yes after standing near the door with her head slightly cocked to the left. The latter's forefinger and thumb were both under her chin as she thought about inviting the teens in the final leg of their journey.

"Alright, you guys can convoy with us but as soon as trouble appears - escape while ya still can." advised the older blonde as the biker had sighed in relief once again.

"Thank you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is the old man with you – Apostle Gennai Whitney? He looks kind of fa- ."

Sayako had never finished her sentence since Izumi had covered her mouth quickly as she had pushed the smaller girl to a corner. The female duelist then peeked at the outside of the door while still covering the teen's mouth with her right hand.

Seeing no one was outside except for Takuya who was moving his right fist up and down as a signal to hurry up, she had closed the door and let go of the now frightened girl.

"I'm really sorry. What was your name again? I kind of panicked when you mentioned our companion's name," said Izumi as she bowed to the younger girl.

"That's alright. I've been though worse, believe me. So are you the driver of the blue van that was shown on TV three hours ago?"

"What the hell? We were on TV! No wonder, we were followed by a spotlight wielding helicopter. We actually thought that it was the California Highway Patrol chopper chasing us at the time!" the older blonde had screamed in panic.

The female duelist had placed her left hand over where heart should be as she breathed heavily. She then looked down at the younger girl who was trying to hide a giggle.

"I mean, no I'm not. Our driver actually is the cute brunet that you saw eating with us," Izumi answered as she had tried to regain her composure and dignity.

In her mind, she had again tried to calm herself as she realized that Deseret First would know that they (Takuya and the others) had escaped their clutches yet again. 'Great, now they know which route we took. I'm pretty sure they will set up an ambush somewhere along the way.'

"Are you OK, Miss…" The biker girl said as she had closed the distance between herself and the female duelist, startling the latter for a second.

"Izumi Orimoto and yes, I'm fine. Jus' a little shaken up, that's all." answered the bank manager in an agitated undertone.

"I'm sorry. Name's Sayako Tsunimori, by the way. Can you tell me why you panicked a moment ago?" Sayako said as she had offered her right hand for a handshake.

This time, Izumi had taken the girl's hand and shook it warmly. She had also told Sayako that they were just taking Gennai to San Francisco leaving the more important details (like the true reason why they are taking Gennai to San Francisco) out of the conversation.

In return, the biker girl had told her about how she had met Bocca and his gang.

In the end, the duelist had agreed on convoying with the teens. They had exited the room only for the younger girl to return since she could now wear her clothes and her blended red body armor.

In the meantime, Bocca was also talking to Takuya and also promised to keep Gennai's current predicament a secret as he donned his own improved silver body armor.

As soon as Sayako had exited the restaurant, the quintet had headed for the nearest Ammo-nation store and bought enough ammunition for the whole trip.

-o0o-

By 11:15 PM, the convoy made up of the Security Six and the Élan Vital had left for the Interstate -580.

Along the way, Bocca had asked Takuya on the radio on why Deseret First had wanted to kill Gennai if they only wanted to keep him from participating in the coming conference.

Even though Takuya had never told the said fact, Bocca had already put two and two together from what he had gotten from the tri-media.

The LDS Apostle had answered that he has been pushing for political reforms that would not only benefit Deseret but also its neighboring countries.

It was those reforms that drew the ire of the said group as they only desire Deseret to be self-sufficient and separate itself from its neighboring countries. In that vein, Deseret Frist had also wanted to close its borders with its neighbors indefinitely.

"Come ta think of it, it does sound like a noble cause." said Izumi as she had put her two cents in.

"Maybe so but the closing of its borders would be bad since most travelers from the East Coast will have to be re-routed to Idaho, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas, and Nevada on their way to California." answered Takuya.

The driver of the Security Six had let the Élan Vital take the lead before continuing. "Also those from the Free Oil States going to the Pacific Northwestern part of the US will also have to go through California just to get to their destinations in Washington and Oregon. In short, a real mess in the travel routes."

"Wow, I knew it would be bad but I didn't think it would be that bad." Sayako said on the airwaves, surprised at Takuya's take of the matter.

"Well, Sayako. Being on the road for almost six years now had taught me a lot about how much a single closed interstate could radically affect my timetable. For a courier, a well-kept time table is what differentiates a successful on-time delivery from a disastrous late one."

"I don't follow you, Takuya." remarked Bocca as he had kept the silver motorcycle with attached side car in line with the road after he had keyed in his wireless headset to the radio.

"Well, imagine if you were tasked to deliver an important item to a customer who lived in the next county at a specified hour the next day. Now tell me, how would he react if you didn't deliver it in time?"

"He'll be very angry and would not ask for my services the next time."

"Exactly, and that would be the main problem for couriers such as myself when Deseret closes its borders indefinitely. We will be forced to accept deliveries that take about a week or so and not rush jobs that only take days to complete."

-oOo-

As the convoy was just exiting Dublin, Izumi had asked Takuya and Bocca to pull over for a minute.

Even though both drivers had complied, Takuya was still about to protest since it was about midnight and they have to hurry up so as not to be noticeably late when they arrive at the New Market Hotel. In his mind, the sooner they get to the hotel, the sooner he could check in to his room and take the needed sleep.

"Sorry, Takuya but we have ta set up the Vertically Launched Heavy Rockets to the van first. It'll only take a few minutes," Izumi replied as she was unbuckling her seat belt.

"Aw, c'mon 'Zumi. I doubt they'll send a helicopter after us. They haveta be really desperate to resort to that expensive option." Takuya said as he had tried to convince the young woman to just stay in the van so they could continue their journey. The fortress city of San Francisco was now a line of lights in the dark horizon.

The female duelist had ignored her friend's pleas and just asked him to open the rear door so she could bring out the one time rocket powered weapons.

The brunet duelist had finally gave in to her demands easily and helped her set up the weapons after he had opened the rear door.

After they had set up the heavy rockets, Izumi had given the surprised driver of the Security Six - a quick peck on the lips as she thanked him. (both duelists were helmet-less at the time). She then scampered back to her seat in the van, all the while trying to hide her reddening cheeks in her red gloved hands.

The brunet had touched his lips in a daze. His brown eyes had remained wide and a fierce blush painted his cheeks as he had recalled the meeting of lips.

"Hey, Takuya. We have to go. It's already past midnight, you know. Tempus fugit (time flies) and so should we," yelled Gennai from his place in the van.

"Uhh, y-yeah. L-let's go, everyone." Takuya replied as he had returned to his seat in the midst of the laughter from his traveling companions except for Izumi who was still blushing.

After they were on their way, Takuuya had told the white haired teen to speed up as they were now trying to get off the Bay Bridge before one o'clock in the morning.

After one o' clock, the bridge would be full of container trucks going to and from San Francisco Harbor.

-o0o-

Twenty minutes and fifteen miles later, a rather large sign was seen by the group:

* * *

_Approaching_

_San Francisco Bay Area Bridge_

_No dueling past this point_

_Violators face forfeiture of vehicles_

_Or capital punishment_

_New San Francisco Oakland_

_Bay Area Bridge Authority_

* * *

"Eh, isn't it a bit too harsh?" Bocca had asked Takuya again on the airwaves. He was confused as to why would anyone would be sent to death row just for dueling on a bridge.

"The reason behind that is simple, " Gennai had answered on the airwaves for Takuya as he had leaned in the space between the front seats as he held the mike. "On a bridge, a hole in a pavement is tantamount to someone else's car plunging to the waters below and sink. This is different on the road where a hole in a pavement is just an inconvenience. Still, they may be lenient to those who are obviously defending."

"I see. Thanks, El-Gennai."

The LDS apostle had sighed as almost everyone in the convoy had made the exact same mistake when they talk to him for the first time. The said sigh had made both driver and gunner of the Security Six smile a bit.

The convoy had now entered Oakland where a plethora of signs – exits, turnoffs, mileage markers, closures, and ubiquitous billboards nearly had overwhelmed them.

They had followed the I-580 to its junction with the I-80 before reaching the bridge. It was when they had re-entered the I-80 where they saw this sign:

* * *

_New San Francisco Oakland_

_Bay Bridge_

_Straight Ahead_

_Be ready to pay toll_

_On San Francisco side_

* * *

As the convoy had gotten on the bridge itself, Sayako had heard a strange whirling sound; she had gotten on the radio to warn the others just in time before a Bell 47J helicopter (Suppressor) had raked the space between the two vehicles with Vulcan machine gun fire.

She then pulled out her laser rifle and fired at the helicopter that was tailing them.

Meanwhile, on both sides of the bridge- other travelers had either stopped or immediately left the bridge when they could as they did not want to take part in this autoduel for fear of losing their vehicles or even their lives.

At the same time as Sayako had fired her laser rifle, both vertically launched heavy rockets went streaking from their launch platforms to the chasing helicopter.

Only one of the projectiles had hit the chopper at its vulnerable underside (and rocking it violently) but it was enough to disable one of its three machine guns in its front along with the Vulcan machine gun in its underside turret.

The laser beam, on the other hand, had only hit its right landing skid.

This had caused the chopper to change its angle of attack to bring its remaining machine guns into play. The van had taken a lot of damage in its roof and rear armor as it was considered by the Supressor's gunner to be the main target.

The Security Six then returned fire in tandem with the Élan Vital. As a result, auto cannon shells were joined by a flight of micro-missiles as they had struck the helicopter's windshield, main rotor, and skids.

The main rotor was heavily damaged and the Suppressor had spiraled downward into the dark and murky waters of the San Francisco Bay. The group had seen it pass the road level of the bridge before hearing a loud splash when the chopper had hit the water.

Both vehicles had already powered down their weapons as they had speedily crossed the bridge to the San Francisco end.

-oOo-

The two vehicles were forced to slow down as they had approached the self-policing tollbooth placed right on the end of the San Francisco side of the bridge.

The tollbooth itself is composed of three gates with heavy rockets placed in middle of its gates' steel pikes' length and tire traps underneath the said pikes themselves.

Moreover, Six Bridge Authority pursuit vehicles (all of them Dodge Charger LXs with heavy weaponry) were blocking the road, beyond the tollbooth. All of their turret weapons were also directed at the approaching vehicles.

The Élan Vital had stopped first, followed by the Security Six. One of the toll-booth attendants (and the officer in charge of the pursuit vehicles) had both asked Bocca and Sayako as to why they were attacked by the Suppressor when Gennai had exited the van and talked to them instead.

The LDS Apostle had also showed his ID card to prove his identity and explained that the Élan Vital was the Security Six's escort. The van itself was his vehicle of choice to bring him to the multi-national conference slated the following morning (It was already 12:45 AM, August 16).

The two men had believed him and convoy was now joined by the six Dodge Chargers with sirens screaming and lights flashing on their way to the New Market Street Hotel. Everyone had gotten out of the convoy's path as nobody had wanted to tangle with six heavily armed and armored police cruisers.

-oOo-

The convoy had pulled up to the front entrance of the hotel where four bell men, a portly man in a business suit and a middle aged man in a sports coat were waiting for them.

The man in the sports coat had just flicked his Zippo lighter's cover open but closed it immediately before stowing it in his right pocket. The bell men had carried the luggage of the entire group to their respective rooms. In the meantime, Gennai had introduced both men to the group.

"Everyone let me introduce you to Undersecretary of State for North American Affairs – John Kane." The portly man had bowed and shook everyone's hand lightly. "And also to a valuable member of my staff- Mitsuo Yamaki."

The brunet man in the sports coat had nodded briefly as he was introduced. He also shook the team's hands.

Gennai then introduced Takuya and the others to them as they escorted the LDS apostle and the rest of the group to the opened elevator.

"Alright, now that everyone is introduced, please retire to your respective rooms and we will meet at the dining room for breakfast at 8:00 AM in the morning."

The tired quartet had thanked Gennai and headed for their assigned rooms after exiting the elevator.

-oOo-

In one of the fourth floor rooms, Sayako, who now wore a T-shirt over her denim shorts, had asked the older girl as the latter was drying her hair with a towel if they would be on the news from this day on.

"Maybe, since the 'Battle at the Bay Bridge' is sure to headline news here." Izumi replied as she had flopped herself down on the double bed and looked at the younger girl who was now hugging her pillow. "Still, my boss would have mixed feelings 'bout my involvement in this adventure if he had known about it."

"Eh, why would he have mixed feelings about it? We're heroes, are we not?"

"Well, I'm a branch manager of the Las Vegas branch of Bank of America so some customers would now see me differently. I mean, they first saw me as a polite and responsible manager of the branch. " Izumi replied with a pout. "Now they may see me as someone they won't mess with on the road and I would probably lose some of their respect and admiration."

"Well, I still respect and admire you. Doesn't that count for something?" Sayako had told the older girl with brown eyes sparkling in hero worship.

"Alright, you win. Let's go to sleep. I don't know 'bout you but **I** need my beauty sleep right about now," Izumi replied as she had shook her head to get rid of the mental image of her customers in Las Vegas showing the same expression as the teen before her.

The teenager had laughed as she had turned off the bedside lamps and placed the pillow under her head.

"Good night, Miss Izumi."

"Good night, squirt."

-oOo-

In the room beside those of the girls, the boys were also having a bit of discussion.

"So Takuya is it true that you have been to almost all of the remaining forty-six states?" asked an excited Bocca who was dressed in his white t-shirt and boxers while lying on his side of the bed.

"Yes, the only states I haven't been to are Alaska and Hawaii. The former is because the weather is too cold for the van and Hawaii -because it is an island almost at the middle of the Pacific Ocean. To compensate, my partner –Junpei and I have also delivered to places in Canada and Mexico." answered Takuya who had just emerged from the bathroom dressed in the same way as his younger companion.

"Wow, it sure is nice going to a lot of places. Maybe I'll become a courier too when I finish college," said Bocca as he had imagined himself traveling to Maine or Florida with Sayako in the Élan Vital.

"Yes, it's exciting at the beginning but later on, you get a yearning ta settle down in just one place and make it your home."

The teenage biker had looked at the older duelist and studied his brooding profile before saying. "I'm sorry. I never knew that you would also seek a place to call home as you flitted about."

"It's alright, Bocca. I still want to travel but havin' a home somewhere is akin to a ship having an anchor. It keeps you from drifting away to nowhere." Takuya said with a sad smile.

"Uhh yeah. I don't get it." Bocca said as he had scratched his head at the wise words said to him.

"Oh well, good night." The teen had added yawning as he had laid on side and shut his eyes for the night.

"Good night. I know you'll understand what I mean someday," replied Takuya as he had turned off the bed light and headed to his side of the bed.

-o0o-

At 7:00 AM later that morning, all four heroes were awakened by the hotel's staff. After a quick shower and change of clothes, they were now on their way to the hotel's spacious dining hall.

The quartet had met in the carpeted hallway before they were led by a bellhop to their respective seats. After saying grace led by Gennai, the group had eaten a variety of fruits along with scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausages, etc.

For the two teens, this was a dream coming true. Bocca had even asked his girlfriend to pinch him in the side to check if he was dreaming this.

After breakfast was over, Gennai had led the four heroes to the hotel's stateroom where he would stay for the duration of the conference.

As soon as the four heroes were assembled in the room and the door was locked, the LDS apostle had given the teens twenty thousand dollars (in cash) for their part in escorting the Security Six in the final leg of the latter's journey.

At first, Bocca and Sayako had refused since they have not done much but Gennai still gave them the money since they hd earned it in their brief midnight fight against the Suppressor. The teens were overjoyed and Sayako had even kissed the apostle's reddening cheeks in her excitement.

It was only after the teens show of euphoria had passed when Gennai then turned his attention to the duelists. He had given one hundred twenty five thousand dollars (also in cash) to Izumi as payment for her help in driving the Security Six and keeping the apostle safe until their arrival in the hotel.

The older blonde had also refused in the beginning since she had already benefited from this courier mission by arriving on time for her meeting in the Bank of America's San Francisco branch the following day, but the older man was adamant about the matter.

Finally, he had given five hundred thousand dollars to Takuya as they had agreed upon in their signed contract. He had also given a business address of a garage nearby where the Security Six could be fully repaired. Takuya would also send half of the amount to Junpei as soon as he could see a Autocard teller.

As one, all four youths had bowed to the apostle before leaving the room. They had returned to their respective rooms to pack their things before separating in the hotel's entrance.

The Élan Vital had gone on toward the pier area since the rest of the Warriors of Menos had already rented a small apartment there in their brief stay in San Francisco.

-oOo-

"Well, 'Zumi. How 'bout I take you to your hotel before heading for the garage? It'll save you a taxi fare," Takuya had told the young woman as they were walking to the parking lot.

"Sure, you still have ta find somewhere to stay in a few days while waiting for Junpei. Am I right, 'Taki? " Izumi had replied in a sly tone of voice.

"Of course, let's go." The brunet answered cheekily as he had led the blond duelist back to the van.

As they were on their way to the hotel where both duelists would eventually be staying for the next few days, Izumi could not help but sing **"Ashita wa Atashi no Kaze ga Fuku"** (**Tomorrow My Wind Will Blow**) made popular by J-pop singer **Ai-Maeda **in sync with the radio, which was also playing the said song.

-o0o-

Back in Winnemucca, a black haired young man was talking to his girlfriend on a public terminal booth. His dark eyes had showed his inner frustration as he had listened to her continuous ranting on the phone's receiver as well as seeing her crying image on the small screen.

"I'm sorry; Kaname but I cannot fulfill what you ask of me. I am a mercenary, a soldier for hire. My present mission is to track down a suspected terrorist who was said to have fled to his safe house in Boise. I hope you understand my current situation."

The young man had immediately pulled the receiver as far from his left ear as possible when a stream of obscene words mixed with loud sobs were heard from it. It was as if the young woman on the other end was throwing a fit just off screen.

After awhile, the verbal abuse had ended with a small click. The small screen had also blinked out.

The young man had replaced the receiver on its hook before exiting the booth. He had slowly approached his gray Aston V12 Vanquish parked in the curb alongside the said booth.

The Vanquish is armed with two linked machine guns in front that was also smart linked to a Gauss gun on its universal pop up turret and a smoke screen at its rear. Both of the latter weapons were hidden within the car's interior.

"Al, open the door and initiate start up sequence." The young man said sadly as he had reached the car's side. The car's driver side door had automatically opened and its Thunder Cat power plant made a grinding noise as its flywheel had started to spin before it hummed with newly generated power from the now spinning flywheel.

"Arbalest, ready for action. What are your new orders, Mr. Sagara?" came a barritone voice from the car's interior speakers.

"I would prefer being called Sousuke, Al." the young man answered as he had closed the door. The door's locks were activated as soon as it was closed shut and the air conditioner was also automatically turned on.

"Sorry, Sousuke then. This new command will be kept in my digital archives," The mechanical voice replied.

"Alright, activate the Global Positioning System and set the Automatic Target Acquisition Device on monitoring status. Also all weapons are to be on standby until we are fired upon." Sousuke was now driving on the I -95 on his way toward Boise, Idaho.

In the depths of his mind, Sousuke was still leering from his earlier phone conversation with his now ex-girlfriend, Kaname Chidori."

"Understood, all detection and navigation systems are now activated and weapons placed on standby."

The Arbalest had continued on its northward route as its driver and owner eagerly awaited the end of his current mission.

* * *

Alright, Badlands Run is officially over. I hope you guys had enjoyed the ride. Also Sousuke and the Arbalest will be showing up in Green Circle Blues, the next installment of the Anime Car Wars series.

With luck, it will be posted in the Full Metal Panic section by April or May next year.

I almost forgot, I do not own Full Metal Panic (and its characters) as well as the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish.

So Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you guys.


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